My little plot

It's time to get the books out.

2012-01-23T15:29:00.000Z

Yes, we've hit that lull in proceedings where those of us who don't own or use a greenhouse have to twiddle our thumbs, tickle the soil over with a hoe once a week and find something to occupy our usually busy schedule.
It's seed catalogue time.
I've tried to steer clear of the lazy solution when writing here but in this case, I must hold up my hands and give in to the obvious. The seed houses and breeders have put all their efforts into finding new varieties and new plants for us so it would be exceedingly churlish to ignore them when the weather outside is frightful and the fire is so delightful. So, if you've no place to go, let us, sow let us, sow let us sow...

My particular leanings tend to be towards easy, tough and productive plants. I have neither the time nor the inclination to pamper those precious darlings of the alpine rockery or the demanding flavourless fashionistas that require heat, protection and then after five years, blanching to become barely edible.
If possible, I try to avoid any edibles that need a lot of help. They seem to me to be akin to those freaks of the dog breeders world that need to be carried around, need special diets and regular operations just to survive and then have a limited lifespan at that.
It has become the norm to grow tomatoes as a cordon, that is, as a single stem with side shoots removed. This encourages greater yields but leaves the plant totally dependant on the gardener for support. The fuss of tying in and staking plants is very limited compared to other plants but gives a good example.
Years ago when I first tried growing tomatoes I grew bush varieties. Or rather, a bush variety. Even then it was hard to find anything other than a cordon type.
The benefit of the bush variety means the plants are free to send out shoots and grow as a low bush rather than a tall single stem. The yield was actually quite comparable. The one precaution is a covering of straw or shredded paper under the plants as the fruits sit close to, sometimes on, the soil itself. Those gardeners trying to grow tomatoes in windier situations will see the clear advantage to this. The amount of ground required to grow bush types is however greater than with cordons but this does allow for a greater root area and even provides some degree of ground cover. I would recommend growing bush varieties to anyone keen to experiment with new and alternative options. Perhaps as a ground cover between the cordons or other taller thinner plants.
Sadly, the choices are still quite limited.
Looking through the main seed house website listings, only a few appear.
Fothergills can't be bothered to list them at all, preferring not to inform the buyer as to the growing habit. A search on their website or bush tomato only brings a mix of plants with bush in the name .such as Marrows and berries, or the full list of all tomato varieties available regardless of habit.
Of course, it is perfectly plausible that all tomato plants can be left to grow as bushes but breeding has produce plants that can no longer cope without the constant attention that cordon plants get. Disease resistance and watering are more of an issue when they are left to fend for themselves.
Thompson and Morgan, ever the encyclopaedic of suppliers, have a vast wealth of choices available, all specifically described as Bush. A search engine that is easy to use and responds quite happily to limited information is such a bonus and this is where Thompson and Morgan show their colours.
Suttons Seeds search bar suggests bush tomatoes as an option for the word 'bush' and so again scores well. Sadly, the choice is quite minimal. Almost a token gesture, considering their position in the market.
Dobies hit a wall when it comes to searching for Bush, well, anything. Typing 'Bush Tomatoes' into their search bar results in a dead end. No items found.
Trying just 'Bush' brings up not one but two varieties of Marrow. Nothing else.You can only find tomatoes if you delete the plural and type in 'Tomato'. Once again, taking a leaf out of Fothergill's book, these are not listed by growth habit so a steady one by one search is required to find the bush types. Once discovered, the description does however inform the potential buyer about the growing style. Sadly, as the text is copied word for word from other suppliers' sites, it really doesn't encourage any loyalty and a better and larger choice will draw customers away to Suttons.
"But what about the smaller, specialist sites and suppliers?" I don't hear you cry.
I'll tell you anyway.
Seeds of Italy again can't handle a search for two words and only show Bush varieties as part of the tomato list in general but a very nice range of ten varieties chosen on taste and kitchen preference with mouthwatering descriptions. A real foodies seed house.
Real Seeds. That's a refreshing site. More of an information/club/research site than just a sales site. Favours interaction so you get honest reviews from existing customers before making your selection. A side bar lists Bush Tomatoes separately and, although the choice is limited to only four, they are very full and informative descriptions. This is clearly a site for and by food lovers and growers rather than a commercial giant.
What about your favourite oddity?
Do you spend the dark cold days searching the web or ideas or do you just find other things get in the way?
Right, now for the next bit, the planning a planting scheme!
Time for the notepad!

New Year,New Ideas?

2012-01-02T22:26:00.000Z

Every year about this time people around the globe start making random promises and rash decisions. This year will no doubt be the same but I am somewhat a quiet rebel so I will just adapt and maybe improve some things I already do. It's less demanding and much easier to keep up. You say lazy, unambitious, I say rebellious.
Anyhoo, one thing I am going to improve on is my pest control. I lost a lot to whitefly and slugs last year, two things which can be easily defeated with a little care and attention and not too much extra effort. I was fortunately given an extendible cloche for Christmas which will help deter the flying pests. We have a steady supply of used teabags and eggshells which will prove a challenge for the slithering pests as well as the copious amount of coffee grounds I produce.
I also have a big roll of horticultural large hole netting. That I will need to think about. It won't stop butterflies but ,if used sensibly it can keep birds off fruit or Brassicas. The trick with fruit netting is to keep it taught. Slack netting will allow birds feet to get tangled up. We don't want them eating our fruit but neither do we want them to die a horrible death trying to.
Alternatively, I could use the net to grown climbers up but I don't like the way the dead tendrils can't be very easily remove after cropping and that means a waste. I prefer to re use, reduce and recycle. Now, there's a thought. I could look at finding used materials we can recycle and or re use.
Fisherman's nets, old packing cases, broken pallets and old window frames from double glazing fitters. Most of these have been already made available at our site but then we also have recycled horse feed freely available too.
I'll get on with looking at that as I vaguely recall pop bottle greenhouses, car tyre planters and builders supplies sacks..

It's Been A Good Year For The ....

2011-12-04T19:14:00.000Z

Well, what has it been a good year for? What did well, which crops failed miserably and what did you try for the first time?
As I've mentioned before, I've tried to keep a diary this year to chart and record my successes and failures, my sowing dates and harvesting. All this should help me avoid mistakes and optimise the soil next season. But what can I say I've learned so far?
My first entry laid out my plans and aims: To provide at least two crops in each month for the table. To be methodical and only grow what we will use.To achieve by methods such as succession sowing and inter-cropping and by the use of varieties of each crop to extend the cropping season.
I started early, well early for the year. Gardening doesn't really follow the calendar, starting in January and ending in December. Rather we sow and plant, harvest and lift as the season dictates. I made my first entry on January the sixth.

Got to plot 11:30 am
No ice but cold and sticky
Dug some Leeks. Site locked up and barren
Need new batteries for radio.

As you can tell, my priorities were not entirely all about food!
The following visit was a little more productive:

Thursday 09/01/11
Dug last of the Mooli.
Cleared beds.
Turned heap.

Turning that heap was a great way to not only keep the compost actively decomposing but also to keep me warm. A good session digging or turning a heap is so much better than jogging or dancing about in lycra at a South American exercise class. Mooli were great as a crop as they grow to about the same size as a shop bought Parsnip and withstand any weather except drying out. Too much heat and not enough water will make them 'bolt' or set seed prematurely. The only downside really is that they are, after all, a radish. Not the most versatile crop for mid winter.

Thursday 13/01/11
Site too wet to work.
Weeds growing strongly.
New batteries!

So, things looked up. Sadly, even with raised beds, long periods of deep snow usually result in standing water making access to the plot difficult , and it's never a good idea to walk on saturated soil as it squeezes any remaining air out of the soil damaging it in the long and short term.

Sunday 16/01/11
Hoed again.
Planted Stuttgarter Onion Sets.
Grey, windy and cold still
Not an exciting month, January, but getting the succession going with the onion sets is a good point. Autumn sown Onion sets don't have to be planted all at once. Save some and plant a second or third selection later for later cropping. Although Onions can be stored very well and last from the last of one harvest until the start of the next, harvesting, drying and tying up before storing all your crop in one fell swoop can be a bit daunting. Space it out, smaller amounts over a longer period.

Sunday 23/01/11
Cold, some ice, breezy.
Dug last Parsnips and leeks.

Sunday 30/01/11
Still freezing but very bright.
Only one other body visible at the site.
Cleared area at the end of the shed.
Planted two more rows of Stuttgarter.
Raked eggshells into soil before planting sets out. (experiment)

So, not everyone took the opportunity to get out and work on the soil while things were quiet. It can sometimes be easier to dig the plot if conditions allow while very little is growing. I know the snow we had in November and later didn't help but once the snow had melted away and the waters had subsided, there was no reason why not to keep warm, exercise and get some fresh if chilly air.

Next time: February brings very little activity but plenty of prep for the upcoming busy season.

Putting in the graft

2011-11-24T18:52:00.000Z

Today was planting day for my Anniversary present. Although our date is in October, the tree was despatched to suit its best planting time so arrived this week, mid November. The variety is Concorde, an eating Pear and , as is the norm, is grafted on to a rootstock. In this instance, it's Quince. Grafting plants is a practice which it is thought goes back to the Chinese pre 2000BC. The main purposes for grafting are restricting top growth, rapid introduction of new varieties (by topworking) and to enable the cultivation of a variety that is susceptible to either disease or conditions such as temperature. The basic principle is forming a union at tissue level of two separate plants,usually those parts below ground (rootstock) and those above (scion). Find out more here. My major influence in horticulture, my maternal Grandfather, had a few grafted plants in his garden, including a three variety Pear tree. This sort of grating can enable a small garden to provide a larger range of varieties in smaller amounts than from three individual trees.

The scion is normally the same size or slightly thicker than the rootstock, particularly if the rootstock is used to inhibit the growth of the scion variety, as the picture shows. A quick pause here to elaborate on that last sentence. We have all either tried or been tempted to try growing a fruit tree from a seed we've found in fruit we've been eating. If you have ever been successful, one thing that would be immediately noticeable would be the size and vigour of the tree. In their natural state, most if not all our popular fruit crops can rapidly reach staggering sized plants. The problem with this is that you need a very large area to grow just one tree and you need a very long ladder to reach the fruit!Secondly, Apples for example do not come true from see. This means the pips produced from one fruit will not grow to produce the same fruit as the parent from which that original pip came. It is the same as human genetics. A child from any parents will never be an exact clone of either parent. As such, all Apple stock has to be increased by vegetative propagation. By taking cuttings, grafting or division. Every specimen of Granny Smith or Bramley is in fact a slice from the original seedling. Only one of each variety has been grown from a seed. That is the plant that first produced the apple which some gardener thought was good enough to share and reproduce.
Some species are grafted to produce taller trees for ease of cultivation as the species in nature may grow as a low spreading bush making harvest and disease control a problem.
Roses tend to be grown on rootstock because it allows a faster production of commercial varieties and also allows for less hardy varieties to flourish in colder areas. In many instances, climbing or rambling roses for example, the natural growth on their own roots is far too aggressive for garden use.

Anyway, back to the tree planting. A well fed and well turned over soil is always going to be beneficial so I chose a spot that has some history. I originally prepared a mound of well rotted manure and compost and covered it in a layer of down facing turves so I could try growing a Melon plant three years ago. Sadly slugs cut through the stem when the plant was quite young so the heap remained for the next two years, growing only grass and weeds. This autumn I removed the top grass and sieved the soil for weed roots. A month later it's rich and full of potential. A quick tickle with a fork to open up the soil and after picking out any remain weed evidence, a good sized hole was dug and in went the rootball.

I used a bamboo cane laid across the soil to make sure the depth was right. There should be some evidence of soil on the tree showing the depth the tree has been growing at the nursery an this is the depth at which you should continue to grow you tree. It is common advice that we must support all newly planted trees with stakes and ties but I am rebelling against that as the specimen is quite short and previous fruit trees on the same site have survived well despite the lack of staking. I am also of the camp that believes allowing a tree to bend with the wind creates a thicker and stronger trunk with more likelihood of survival.

Once planted and firmed with the heel, the new addition to the allotment was given a good drink of fresh water to wash soil deep into the gaps between the roots. I won't expect any fruit in the first year, in fact I will be removing any fruit that forms as soon as the flowers fall. Producing fruit takes a lot of energy and that isn't good for a plant that is still settling in and putting out roots. I'll allow the energy to go towards establishing the tree first then allow fruit to come in the following year. Luckily Pears are long lived fruit trees and produce much better and more prolifically as they age.
I just know I can look forward to many years of fresh juicy Pears in the future!

Time to get stripping!

2011-11-17T20:34:00.000Z

I made a useful discovery today. I noticed some of the troublesome grass path between two of my beds had started to tumble over the edge and onto one of the beds. I started to just pull up the grass clump. As it came away, it pulled more of the matted grass roots with it, like a green carpet. I continued and found that, in fact, a lot of it would come away as simply as pulling up a roll of thick muddy carpet. I soon found myself stripping away the full length of the one path and lugging it into a barrow.

The method works really well and exposes all the nooks and crannies that slugs and other pests hibernate in over winter. It doesn't however lift the tap rooted weeds. As the pictures show, it does make it a lot easier to spot them and lift them with a hand fork, taking as much root as possible to eliminate regrowth.

A quick hoe over to break up the compaction from a few years of walking over, wheeling barrows along and mowing, then the rack tidied up the bare soil. It was a relief to finish the one path but then I stood back and looked at it. I was a bit to keen to admire my own efforts and decided the next path along the other side of the bed would look better if it matched...

Well, I have a work day tomorrow so I can always rest at my desk until my back and knees forgive me. At least my fingers won't be on display so much. Yes, tearing up two barrows full of muddy root matting does get the soil under the nails pretty deeply!

It's Never The Same As The First Thyme

2011-10-21T21:15:00.000+01:00

It's time for me to insult you all by reminding you how to plant Garlic and Onion sets and sow Broad Beans and Peas.
I say insult because of a recent conversation, (I said something, they replied. That much), I had on ™Twitter.
BBC Gardeners World had reached that time of year too. Big cuddly Monty was about to go to great lengths to explain how to plant Garlic bulbs when , almost as one, a group of friends online all complained that this was in fact helpful but patronising as not only do most viewers already know the basics of planting vegetable but this 'advice' had been repeated annually for several years.
Now, I'm not one to criticise but isn't all gardening advice repetitive?
By the very fact that gardening relies on the coming and going of seasonal changes and the Circle Of Life (copyright Elton John), things will repeat but it is the manifesto of the horticultural correspondent to find some new angle or new approach to the mundane and repetitive.
That said, I'm going to start by talking about planting Garlic..

Grow it. Even if it's just for fun, for the hell of it. To prove you can. To give away to friends or just to string together and hang from the kitchen rafters Brittany Farm House Kitchen style.

Just do it right.

Don't grab a sorry looking specimen off the shelf, or worse, from the chilled cabinet at the local supermarket.

Yes, Garlic reproduces by division so each clove grows into a bulb but there are different varieties that cope with different climates and conditions. The supermarket offerings will have grown in a nice warm sunny climate on probably enriched well drained soil. Yours will struggle to survive in cold, wet conditions on claggy,heavy soil in our temperate and varied climate.

Choose wisely. Research growing conditions locally and find a supplier from the U.K.

Try The Garlic Farm on The Isle of White. Not exactly next door neighbours but close enough for our purposes.

Maybe you're reading this with a slight brogue accent? Try Really Garlicky, a Highland Garlic Farm.

Whatever you do, remember you are growing a crop and you'll want to treat it the same way you would any other crop. It will be hit by pests, as it is an Allium, think of other onion type plants and the pests that ail them. Viruses, diseases and other weaknesses. Feed them, give them good soil and water them well.

Andy Warhol Knew His Onions

2011-09-28T21:00:00.000+01:00

I have been struck by a bug, the stardom bug.
We have a very good local web tv channel here,westonsupertelevision.com, and they chose to contact me to talk about this blog, gardening and general green issues.
I've had odd brushes with television and radio in another guise but never anything that has centred on my life love of gardening, growing and providing.
It was an odd but welcome opportunity to spread or share my enthusiasm for all the benefits of plot life.(There's a merchandising idea..Plotlife..)
Anyway, here it is.
Me Talking Gardening

Don't judge a book (or beetroot) by its cover

2011-09-08T16:44:00.001+01:00

Or more precisely, don't judge the size of your roots by the amount of leaf above the ground. I sowed a couple of short rows of beetroot earlier in the year. There were sown in the same bed as the disastrous Italian heritage radishes with the long complicated name an the very small chilli plants. As you can tell by the description, they weren't that successful but this is the same bed that I have been growing my runners in and my hopeful sprouts.
I thought the beetroot was going to be a dismal failure because the leaf growth seemed sadly lacking, some making little more than half a dozen leaves of under four inches in height. Compared to the beetroot sown over a month later and growing resplendently in another bed, with huge two foot leaves in big bunches, they seemed destined to end their days garnishing the compost heap rather than a salad.
I had left them to try and put on some growth as they were not taking up much space or requiring any real attention other than watering and weeding. It may have been the weather, the soil, the shade from the bean 'wall' or a number of things so I just let them get on with it.
As it happens I have been harvesting the healthier looking roots for a few weeks with varying results, some medium sized some small and few large. But all had large fleshy an shiny beautiful leaves.
This week, thanks to the heavy rain and the driving wind, my wall of beans finally changed from a precarious listing position to a permanent horizontal one so I made the most of the beans that were left and cut the stems of the vines so I could tidy the mess. I decided to pull up the miserable wretches that were the early beetroot as they were in the same bed and beginning to lose the fight with the weeds, lush and green from the rain. To my surprise, the roots were healthy, clean and averaged two inches in diameter, just the right size for pickling as baby beets. With most, the leaves were still tiny pathetic looking tufts on top but the roots were if not impressive at least very usable.
It just proves the point, don't just what lies beneath by the evidence you see on the surface. Sometimes the right soil contains all the plant needs for growth where it counts. Leafy crops require more Nitrogen,root crops need Phosphorus to succeed and without Potassium we wouldn't get flowers or the fruits that follow. It must have been the case that the soil in the first bed had a good amount of Phosphorus, where the second with the later sowing had high Nitrogen content, producing a lot of lush but ultimately pointless leaf growth.
It serves as a good lesson in maintaining a good level of nutrients in your soil, preparing the right beds for the relevant crops an knowing what they need.

Bugs for Beans

2011-08-21T20:44:00.000+01:00

Today's trip to the plot was not only for harvesting, as are most visits during August, but also to take some pictures. I like to record the varying stages of growth during the seasons, the changing face of the site and the wide and wondrous range of plants grown at the site.
Today was a good day to record the numbers of ladybirds(bugs) helping keep my plot, and in particular my beans, pest free.

I do enjoy growing beans but I never really gae the life cycle of the ladybird/bug much consideration. I knew the larvae was larger and more voracious than the adult but have never observed the point at which one becomes the other, as some of the above shots show.

Taking Notes And Making Changes

2011-08-01T22:13:00.000+01:00

It's been a lovely summer so far, with some rain to disappoint the sun lovers but keep the ground moist but mainly a good few dry,hot days.The fruit has been early and abundant this season and the veg has handled all that nature can throw at it with aplomb.
We can all enjoy the pleasures that are ours to reap this season but what about the next one?
What of next year?
I have written about my plantings, sowings and harvests here but in order to make sure I'm not going to be repeating reports of repeated mistakes or failures I have also been keeping a small notebook hanging in my shed at the plot to record my actions as and when I visit the plot. Only scribbled short notes, abbreviated comments and lists of seed names it may be but it has a few points of reference that'll help for next year:
The Date of each visit.
The names of varieties sown/planted.
The treatments given/action taken.
The Date of any harvesting and rough estimates of quantities/sizes.
These points mean I can avoid making mistakes twice, I can know which plants and seeds do better than others, how early some things can be started and when to expect a return on your hard work. By recording the progress, or lack of it, of new subjects, you can build up a large list of things that will provide good results time and time again and what works best where and after which crops.
This year, as always, I am trying new things.
It's a habit I can't give up.
I promise I will stick to what I already grow every year but I never manage to keep my resolution.
This year, being no exception, I am growing Sweet Potato, Winter Radish, Italian Radish and Brussels Sprouts.
I'll let you know how it goes...
What are you trying for the first time?

Sweet for my sweet (potato)

2011-07-08T23:31:00.000+01:00

Sweet Potato is , surprisingly, more closely related to one of the less popular plants regularly found in our gardens than we think. Now, don't be misled by the common name. That's always a mistake. Ipomoea batatas is distantly related to because they are both from the Solanales order but they are not family. The members of the same family are all Convolvulaceae. If that sounds familiar, think of Convulvus, the climbing Morning Glory. Also, the white flowered close cousin, Bindweed. Yes, BINDWEED!!

Sweet Potatoes are closely related to the pernicious strangling weed Bindweed.

When you compare leaves and flowers, you can see the link but the tubers are the main difference.

Morning Glory

Bindweed

The wide trumpets and the glossy heat shaped leaves, the twining stems. All are common in all three plants.

Sweet Potatoes

The resemblance to the common potato is very slight, mainly in the edible tubers. Beyond that, there are very few similarities. A much smaller trumpet flower but no climbing.No heart shaped leaves either sadly, as I'm sure they'd make spuds more popular in the garden.

Anyway, why the interest in Sweet Potatoes?

Because I've just started growing them!

Getting in The Spirit Of The Harvest

2011-06-16T17:52:00.000+01:00

I've been looking for more ways to use up the abundant harvest which seems to be coming earlier and earlier. So far, the peas and potatoes are welcome at the table in the usual form of sunday roast vegetables but the surplus fruit has always been a challenge. We can only eat a limited amount of Summer Pudding and as lovely as strawberries and cream are, after too many they start to induce a fuller figure and nausea!
So, being partial to the odd naughty vimto, I stumbled across a few recipes for using fruit to enhance alcoholic drinks.

The ingredients. Blackcurrants, Voka and a kilner jar.

Washing the fruits and removing the sticks, stems and snails

Kilner Jar stuffed to the brim with fruit and topped up with medium quality unflavoured spirit.

The finished product, bottled and ready to infuse the vodka with the rich taste of blackcurrants. Approximately 7-10 days of turning twice daily to help the mix should result in a full flavoured spirit. I'll test it on day 7 then if ready, I'll filter the spirit through a coffee filter paper into a sealable bottle.

I've never tried this recipe before so I will report back if sober when the week or ten days is over.

Next, maybe if it works well, I'll try other flavourings, Raspberries, Tayberries or maybe some sort of blend of fruits.

Let me know if you try it too!

Down came the rain...

2011-05-29T16:38:00.000+01:00

Yes, the Strawberry Tower looks healthy but look below. the grass is browning off through the lack of rain. We last had a decent downpour in March. That's a long time and a lot of watering ago. We are fortunate on our site to have free water troughs provided but not everyone is as lucky. The last few weeks, as in every spring, has meant careful and regular tending of seedlings. Those first weeks of a plants establishment are vital and any traumatic experiences, such as drought or frost, can seriously stress the plant and detrimentally affect it beyond repair. Small incidents can trigger distortion of the leaves,stunted growth or a general weakness towards disease and pests.

A lack of regular water is probably the most damaging thing a plant can experience at such an early stage in its development, with the exception of pest attack.

Like most gardeners, I water with a watering can, making several trips to and from the water trough on site each time I visit. Now, with each can carrying 9 litres, that's a lot of trips and a lot of water but if you ever wait and then scratch at the watered surface, you'll find the artificial rain hasn't penetrated that far down.

It's never easy to imitate natural rainfall so it was a great relief when the skies opened and poured that wonderful liquid down last week. The first time I managed to get to the plot after two days of heavy long showers the ground smelled of that sweet rich scent that always follows a much needed rain fall. The soil was darker and looked almost like it had swollen , gorged on the recent down pouring. The other sign of the rains effect was the visible growth on all the crops.

The rain we long for only comes if drizzle or swift, high impact showers that run off the surface and away before it can soak into the soil, where the roots can use it. When it rains slowly, consistently for a prolonged period, the soil swells like a full sponge and can release that stored goodness over a long time,providing the plants with all the water they need.

One thing to remember when the rain doesn't fall is that even on a cloudy day, the plants will lose water through their leaves, a method described as transpiration. This is similar in principle to animals sweating. They also suffer from wind, but thankfully not in any way similar to animals!

Wind on plants has the same effect as wind on your laundry. When it blows across, with or without the added sun, it dries things out. Dessication is the name of the game. Drying out the leaves and the soil beneath them.

So, water whenever it has been dry, not just when it's been sunny and hot.

Admissions Time

2011-04-28T18:07:00.000+01:00

Ok, let's get it out in the open.
No missus, not that!
I AM A CHEAT!!
Yes, a cheat. Here's why:

There are some things in gardening you have to do carefully and by the book. Root division, applying weedkiller,pruning Clematis and others but there are areas when a little corner cutting can be beneficial.

1.Weeding large areas of an allotment or even flower border can be back breaking work and even an endless task if the weeds are rife and the beds long or large enough so using a good weed cover membrane is acceptable. It helps to keep moisture in the ground at the roots too.
2. Many plants produce thousands of seeds in every fruit pod or seed head. When you buy a packet of seeds, there is a minimum price that can be charged to cover the costs of production. Putting fewer seeds in won't cut cut costs so you often end up with more than a hundred seedlings when you only want half a dozen plants.
In those cases, buying those plants may be more sensible and less wasteful than growing from seed.
3. Some seeds require specialist treatments to germinate and sometimes to get them past the early stages of growth. The cost of equipment for these exotic delights can run rather high so, again, buy plants unless you really want to specialize.
4. Onion sets. Not quite seed, not really plants. Grown to bulblet size then heat treated to suspend growth, these little beauties allow a head start for autumn planting and to avoid the risks of getting from seed to small plant stage.
5. Watering is vital especially with containers and during the hotter months. It is also a hard, long and wearing task when you have a lot of containers or a large plot to water. Water retaining gel has been designed to hold some of the excess water from watering and to slowly release it over a period of time. This allows plants to access essential moisture when they need it, not just when you are able to provide it. This saves the plants a lot of damaging drought stress. Great if the weather changes while you're stuck in an office or away from home for the weekend. For the cheat, it can mean watering more but less frequently.
6. Got a few large , deep planters to fill? Using shallow rooted plants? Don't like wasting compost or struggling to move big heavy tubs? Half fill the bottom of the container with polystyrene beads then fill as usual. The water will drain as normal but the tub won't be as heavy and the compost won't cost as much.
Good policy for anyone planning a roof top garden as the weight will always be a consideration.
7. Organic gardening is a very worthy and healthy choice but faced with a plot of head high brambles and bindweed it may seem the wrong choice. Glyphosate won't poison the soil and will make a quick job of an uphill task and give the gardener a little hope and a clean canvas to start off with.
(I know many hardened organic gardeners will argue with the last tip: Let your conscience be your guide.)

Try a few of these cheats yourself, add some of your own if you know of more. Sharing isn't cheating!

Red and Yellow and Purple and Greens

2011-03-24T20:09:00.000Z

It takes ages but the last few weeks before it comes are agonizing. Yes, my beloved Purple Sprouting is ready finally. My Spring Onions are waiting for a decent salad day. Actually, I must confess, my wife did tell me we were having salad today but I forgot, otherwise we would have already been tucking into a couple of these.

Here's the proof of that lovely red brassica.

The plot in general is looking quite good. Yes, there is still grass creeping into the beds and the shed leans impossibly but otherwise, things look good. There are still Leeks to be consumed whilst next winter's crop has started the long journey already with seedlings coming through in a small pot. I am trying more Squash again this year. We have sown a selection of varieties in modules at home and I have filled a deep bed at the plot with fresh strawy manure and covered that with black pvc to warm up in preparation for the plants when they are big enough.

Meanwhile, my obsession with constructing ~~crap~~ stuff continues apace. Some kind person or company delivered some old wooden packing cases to the site for us to use. The second lot although the previous were badly damaged and smaller.

A couple of spare hinges I knew I had ferreted away somewhere, some left over felt from a previous maintenance job on the shed roof and I had myself a dry wood store or pot store.

Job done! I just need a bigger shed. I should really stick to the tiny 6 x 4 I have because any more space will mean I just hoard more useless bits but I really could use something with room to stretch my legs when I stop for coffee or rain.

Ah well, it's cosy!

Getting a head start

2011-03-06T22:33:00.000Z

It's so very nearly safe to start sowing seeds and planting out but there is still the risk of a frost. So, what can we do to stem this interminable itch to get out and get growing?
Well, most hardy seed can be sown ,as the packets say, from mid to late March. This means with some clever trickery we can maybe grab an extra week or three and get some head way.
We have a small mini greenhouse which we have used to harden off the seedlings my wife raised on a sunny windowsill. By starting them indoors and then, essentially, hardening the plants off, I have been able to plant them out when I should, according to the seed packets, be thinking about sowing.
Like a lot of gardeners, I have been chitting seed potatoes for a few weeks. The soil was very friable, that is it was crumbling easily, and so I managed to prepare a couple of trenches and planted my salad and first early potatoes.
I am still harvesting the leeks I planted out last year but due to the long growing season I have the next crop already sown and saw the first hair pin shaped seedling peaking through the soil in the make shift cold frame today. That's encouraging.
Likewise, Purple Sprouting Broccoli takes forever to come to its full potential but that may just be my impatience playing up when it comes to delicious soups.
That reminds me, I need to check my stock of Squash seed. Man cannot live by bread alone, he needs Butternut Squash!
If you fancy trying something unusual like a Squash or Sweet Potatoes, it's a good idea to look at the family first.
Squash for example are the family that includes many every day easy to grow staples, the Cucurbits. This means , if you know how to grow Courgettes, or you forget to check one day and find you know how to grow Marrows, you can grow Squash.
Sweet Potatoes however, are a surprise. They are not, as one might expect, relatives of the Potato but are much more closely connected to the Bindweed family. As any allotment grower can testify, all you need to grow Bindweed is a tiny sliver of root to grow masses and masses. So if you want to grow Sweet Potato, you start with rooted slips not tubers.
Anyway, time for some suggestions for things to do this month.
If you need to dig, beds or borders, now is the time to get things finished before the drying winds and warmer sun bake the soil and also to allow the freshly turned sods to settle.
If you have cloches or covers warming the soil already, you can start to sow early crops under them now, if you haven't, now is not too late to start warming the ground. Don't worry if you don't own a cloche or greenhouse, black polythene or cardboard will suffice.
Prune Apple trees,Pears and any other hardy fruit trees or bushes.
Continue planting out container grown Trees
Prepare your soft fruit beds, strawberries need a good well manured clean base. Any existing strawberry beds will benefit from a good tidy up.
Start thinking about preparing a trench for Runner beans. Digging a good trench now and filing it over the next few weeks will provide a good water reservoir and food store for these hungry climbers.
Despite the cold winter, some lawns will have grown enough to warrant a light trim if the grass is dry. Just be sure to make it a light cut, only taking a little off the top please Barber!

Time to get started

2011-03-05T13:41:00.000Z

Yes, it is getting lighter out but let's not rush shall we?
There is still the danger of frost until possibly as late as May. So don't rush out with your half hardy bedding or your greenhouse raised veg yet. If they haven't been completely hardened off, leave it a little longer.
My Broad Beans (Vicia faba) have been sitting outside overnight for a little over a week and have a good rootball so it's time to get them out in the soil before they start to suffer from confined quarters.

Started in a module tray, the germination was a bit poor, only three quarters of the seeds came up, although one was breaking through the surface as I planted out yesterday. I have a small bed with soil that was manured last Autumn so was full of enough nutrition for these early starters.

These beans will give an early start to the season and will hopefully be early enough to avoid the dreaded blackfly.

Elsewhere on the plot, the long awaited and much anticipated Purple Sprouting Broccoli was showing some colour at last. I adore this vegetable either as an accompaniment or as a soup. Even the small heads covered in a cheese sauce, like a variation on cauliflower cheese works well. Any recipe really!

It was time to do some housekeeping too. With the Autumn Rasperries starting to show new growth, it was time to cut the old canes down and clear some ground for the this seasons fruiting canes.

Looking Back, Staring Forward.

2011-01-02T15:46:00.000Z

I almost did the unmentionable yesterday, that is to say I had the calendar for 2010 in my hand and was about to tear it up to add to the compost heap. I suddenly recoiled and retreated, remembering just why I had started out adding scribbled notes to the dates.
I had intended to use the calendar as a record of my sowings and plantings, recording the harvest times, the quantities and more. As it was, the sections for each day were too small to list enough as I generally did plenty on some visits and little when the soil or the time was against me.
I have resigned myself to using the beautifully made journal my sister gave me for Christmas 2009 after resisting for over a year now. Each page is so wonderfully designed and perfect for the gardener and the various sections allow for my rambling,random entries so I will have to deface the perfection with my own writing this year.
As for the smatterings of information on the calendar? I will start to compile a report on the last twelve months although to be honest, at first glance it starts in March and the snow put an end to things pretty much in late November so it will be a 9 month compilation at best.
Stay tuned.

It's Snow Joke!

2010-12-30T15:19:00.000Z

Ok, it's a bad pun to start with but it catches the eye!
It does draw the attention to that recent phenomenon, the prolonged period of heavy snow fall, and standing snow at that. Then there are the problems that beset the gardener when the snow lies heavy all around. Deep and crisp and even may suit some Good Kings but they weren't looking after a shrubbery.
I had planned to give a run down on how to save a shrub that had been damaged by heavy snow, when I noticed my large Hebe showing a gap where the snow had weighed down on it, forcing it to split in to down the centre. It looked as though a huge axe had cleft it in two with one mighty blow. I had plans to prune the remains hard to encourage new strong growth, maybe taking heeled cuttings from the damaged material for an insurance policy. I had planned to until the rain and warmer temperature wiped away the white menace, revealing a strong shrub that simply bounced back into shape. It proves how resilient our favourite performers really are. It also shows why they are such favourites amongst gardeners who don't like fussy diva plants.
It was advisable to brush any snow off higher branches that were bending under the weight, just to avoid any damage. Staying off lawns and beds is also wise as crushed snow and ice will dig into the unprotected soil. Frozen soil cannot respond to being crushed the same way that warm, fresh and living soil can. Crushed frozen plant cells deteriorate quickly as soon as the thaw arrived.
Thankfully, most hardy garden plants are very good at recovering and replacing lost material with new growth in the spring. The grass will fill the gaps in the lawn, new leaves and new shoots will appear on shrubs and trees.
Recovery is one of natures greatest tricks. This recent weather will be the test of it's strength and just how good a trick it is.

Time for planning and a little planting

2010-12-16T16:29:00.000Z

It may be December, the start of the Winter season and technically the coldest month, but there are things we can be doing in the garden, at the lot and in the shed if the weather really delivers.
Outdoors, if the soil gives a little and is therefore not frozen solid, bare rooted fruit trees or bushes can still be planted. Just be sure to stake the taller ones in preparation for the possibility of strong winds. If you don't have new stock to plant, it's a good time to take hardwood cutting of fruit bushes too.
For the cooks amongst us, you still have time to push in some late Garlic bulbils, Onion sets can also be set in the soil now. Seed Onions would traditionally sown indoors on Boxing Day but that is more to do with convenience than strict time keeping. I think many gardens rely on that sort of tradition to get a break away from the festivities when the family and food gets to be too much.
Legume lovers can pop in a few rows of Broad Beans, common varieties such as Aquadulce Claudia or The Sutton, or a broad channel sown full of early cropping Peas before the ground frost comes back. They will give an early harvest and ,in the case of the Broad Beans, almost no Blackfly problems.
On the lawns and borders, use a lawn rake or Spring Tined rake as it may also be described, to rake the fallen leaves away to a leaf compost bin to make mulch eventually. If you must add them to the general compost heap, do so in small quantities as they can be much slower in breaking down and in extremes will rob nitrogen from the heap to do so. Adding Nitrogen rich materials such as lawn clippings or chicken manure, the former being harder to find, will help balance the mix.
Try to stay off the lawn whenever possible if the weather stays cold as walking on frozen or sodden ground will damage the structure and compact the soil,pushing out air pockets.
Look after the pond this month. Try to keep a small hole in any frozen water for air to pass through. A small ball, say a tennis ball or childs toy football, will expand and shrink as the ice swells and thaws. Keep fallen leaf litter off the surface to avoid turning the water into a boggy swamp of rotting material.
Rotting leaves at the base of the pond will give off toxic gases which won't help the fish or other wildlife.
If you have completed all your jobs, or the ground has become a solid block of frozen soil, take some time to enjoy the different look the garden takes on when everything gets a white coating. Record the scene and post it here. The views from the hillsides where I live took on a look of Narnia when the recent hoar frost hit. The first snow may cheer people but it soon brings travel chaos and ice may look nice but slipping and sliding as you try to walk to the shops is no fun. A good hoar frost just makes people smile and gasp in awe at the sight of their local scenery as it becomes a Christmas Card picture.
The warm seclusion of a heated and insulated shed is a great place to watch the snow fall as you clean and sharpen your tools before a light wipe with an oily cloth puts them to bed for the Christmas break. Another good tip is to check watering cans for leaks and splits and that includes the rose. Metal or plastic, all cans are at risk of damage if they are left out to freeze and thaw. Rubber and brass rose heads may have dried and perished in the long gone days of summer so check them and give them a good cleaning if they are still sound. Storing them in a dry water tight container will help them survive the worst weather and lowest temperatures.

Finally, don't forget your fellow gardeners who have been keeping the bugs and pests away all year. Feed the birds, make sure you check bonfires for hedgehogs before lighting and put out a small dish or pot saucer of fresh unfrozen water for all the animals and birds when you can.

Shaking The Money Tree

2010-12-06T22:01:00.010Z

I have been pondering things fiscal and future based and have decided to try a new idea.

I enjoy giving advice and making suggestions, answering queries and such but many professionals do the same as a living. So, to avoid undercutting their livelihoods and to attempt to make this a little more self financing, I am going to start offering private one to one consultations.

If you have any puzzling problems or troublesome trees, if your lawn is looking lacklustre or your parsnips need perking up, if you can't find the A Team, find me.

Seriously though,I am available for individual consultations if you want more extensive in depth answers than I supply on the site, please see below.

Greenman Consultations:

Email: westongreenman@googlemail.com
Website:http://greenmanconsultation.moonfruit.com/ (under construction, so bear with me!)

or Leave a message on 07793156200 with a brief description and your number and I will call back.

My prices are:

Garden Coaching (for those taking that first step into grow your own)

1 off 1 1/2 -2 hr visit £45

Regular Annual Coaching Contract (4 visits over 1 year) £150

Consultation/Advice

Remote Consultation (phone/email) £30 each

Home visit (1 1/2 - 2 hr ) £50

Following visits £40 hourly (min 1/2hr)

Further details on request.

I don't expect to actually make a living out of this but I would like to test the waters (soil?) and see if it is possible to earn anything from my experience and qualifications!

Meanwhile, the blog will continue as it has always continued and please feel free to comment as you have before!

Alternatives and options for edging your raised beds.

2010-12-01T21:27:00.000Z

I have been slowly building up my veg beds at the plot. Whether you have good drainage or not, they make it easy to control the growing conditions in each bed and to keep things organised. Reaching down to plant and tend is a lot easier on the back too with a slightly higher planting level. What you use to build your beds depends on how high you want to go and what is available in your area.

Try reclaimed skirting boards for an attractive outside!

If you can find them, or afford them, old reclaimed floorboards make a sturdy edging.

Scaffold boards, used, are popular but not cheap. They are pretty strong though.

Frosting The Plot

2010-11-28T19:01:00.000Z

It may be cold outside right now, no, I correct myself, it IS cold out right now. But, one benefit from the ice cap covering the plot has brought about some stunning pictures. The myriad colours of the brassica leaves,lightly dusted with Winter's icing sugar has resulted in some wonderful images.

Beetroot wilting as the air turns artic.

A bed of Leeks show why they are hardy and essential Winter standby.

Young Cabbage leaves dusted by Winter.

Flat-leaved Parsley and seed heads.

A different view of Japanese Radish 'Mooli'

Autumn planted Onions with leaf litter.

The thick ribs of a Purple Sprouting Plant.

The leaves of a Tayberry imitate the rust covered frame it climbs through.

Thick, almost rubber looking Ruby Chard may wilt but recover when the sun comes out.

The thick,leathery leaves of a large cabbage remain firm against the freezing temperatures.

Flowered Cabbage stems surround Ruby Chard leaves,startlingly vibrant despite the freeze.

Like sugar-coated sweets,Sage has furry leaves which frost beautifully.

A reminder, it is still only November.

Not so Hungry during this Gap!

2010-11-21T23:15:00.000Z

There is a time during the growing year when the range of crops to be harvested is at it's lowest.
It usually begins when the cold weather hits hardest and crop growth slows to a halt. The availability or not of crops to eat has brought about the highly appropriate name for this lean period.
If you have been successful with overwintered crops such as cabbages and sprouts, Kale will be easy and will fill the gap between the last of the brassicas and the first early broad beans.
The period is normally late winter, just before spring starts warming the soil again, so early in the new year.
There are ways of trying to avoid or lessen the effect of this shortage, by storing veg such as potatoes and tap root vegetables such as carrots and parsnips and by using protection in the form of cloches or greenhouses. Even just a polythene sheet over the soil can help raise the temperature by 1-2 degrees. This will bring sowing time forward by up to a week or more if the sun is strong and the wind is low. Late sowing of what are termed early varieties can help stretch things out too. Early, in food growing just means quicker to harvest, a shorter growing period. This enables a gardener to sow a little later than suggested on the pack as the variety will come to fruition in less time.
Raised beds, by being above the level of ground frosts and able to drain easily, can last a little longer against cold weather than traditional rows. Placement needs careful consideration too. The sun moves differently during the winter and late autumn months so maximising it is vital.
The other side of the Hungry Gap is finding tasty recipes that use the only crops available or stored.

So , guess where the next blog is going?

Review time!

2010-11-07T19:19:00.000Z

It is nearing the time of year when all the television shows and magazines are putting their Christmas special editions to bed, so, not one to buck a trend (ahem!) I decided to have a look back over my year with you and the plot.

Let's not get specific but the early part of the season, rather than the year, started with my beans and peas, sown the previous autumn. The ground was a little late warming up due to a heavy layer of snow, which became flooding later, so the start was delayed for most growers, including the normally warmer south.
We started by looking at how the seed houses have to give generalised guidelines on sowing/planting/harvesting times due to the changing season weather. The coloured bars don't allow for seasonal variations or localised climate differences. A better system would include soil temperatures and daylight length but would isolate the beginner.
Later, when the weather had returned to it's spring normality,I risked a few sowings, only to find the cold came back and froze them into the soil. Luckily, the early varieties are chosen for hardiness and the cabbages and early peas survived to provide a good series of crops over the coming months, the cabbages are still providing some fodder now, ten months later.
I met up with a fellow plotter, a friend from a college course years ago, who showed me her shed and plot.
The visit reminded me of my love for sheds, a love shared by, amongst many others, famous tv property expert and baby breeder, Sarah Beeny. She has been so enthused by the little boxes that she now judges the growing 'Shed of The Year' competition.

As the season rolled onwards, I ranted slightly about varying subjects. It's all those dark evening you see. Too much time thinking instead of digging! It was good to get a little more education across though, if somewhat loosely. Sometimes it's easier to show than explain things. The limits of a blog maybe. I hope to soon be able to add video clips to my blog for that reason, but won't until I can provide content of interest rather than five minutes of a hoe in various soil conditions (as my attempts have been so far!)
The year has been interspersed with picture blogs, when the mood took me and when the subject caught me. My trip to Hestercombe last month made it very simple and proved that sometimes the pictures say enough.
Throughout the year I have endeavoured to advise as much as possible, helping the beginners and the enthusiastic untrained with tips, from which basic tools to how to water safely and economically.

All in all, I have enjoyed what I have contributed and also what others have added, either as comment or as guest recipes, and I sincerely hope you have too, and will continue to follow as I head into another year on My Little Plot.
If you want, drop a line to me here : westongreenman@googlemail.com

If you are local, come visit me. The map on here will direct you, or email me for more information. Just give me tip that you are coming as I can't predict my own visits!

Meanwhile, please continue to comment, good or bad as long as it is honest and constructive, and keep reading!

Seasons Eatings!

2010-10-31T00:45:00.000+01:00

Here's a guest recipe to help use up some excess veg and to cheer up the grumpiest spooks this weekend!

Pumpkin Tray Bakes

• 300g self-raising flour

• 300g light muscovado sugar

• 3 tsp mixed spice

• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

• 175g sultanas

• ½ tsp salt

• 4 eggs , beaten

• 200g butter , melted

• zest 1 orange

• 1 tbsp orange juice

• 500g (peeled weight) pumpkin or butternut squash flesh, grated

And for the topping..
• 200g pack soft cheese

• 85g butter , softened

• 100g icing sugar , sifted

• zest 1 orange and juice of half

Method (How we bung it together)

1.Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a 30 x 20cm baking or small roasting tin with baking parchment. Put the flour, sugar, spice, bicarbonate of soda, sultanas and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine. Beat the eggs into the melted butter, stir in the orange zest and juice, then mix with the dry ingredients till combined. Stir in the pumpkin. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30 mins, or until golden and springy to the touch.

2.To make the frosting, beat together the cheese, butter, icing sugar, orange zest and 1 tsp of the juice till smooth and creamy, then set aside in the fridge. When the cake is done, cool for 5 mins then turn it onto a cooling rack. Prick it all over with a skewer and drizzle with the rest of the orange juice while still warm. Leave to cool completely.

3.If you like, trim the edges of the cake. Give the frosting a quick beat to loosen, then, using a palette knife, spread over the top of the cake in peaks and swirls. If you're making the cake ahead, keep it in the fridge then take out as many pieces as you want 30 mins or so before serving. Will keep, covered, for up to 3 days in the fridge.

Sweet Potato recipe (for Ali)

2010-10-24T18:43:00.000+01:00

A very good friend on here and twitter, Allotment Ali, has been experimenting with Sweet Potatoes this season so I have posted this recipe for her.
Anyone who likes the idea of growing these delicious tubers should read her blog.
Sonia's Leek and Sweet Potato Gratin

400g leeks, trimmed and washed
50g butter
750g sweet potatoes, peeled and very thinly sliced
1 tsp paprika
300ml single cream

1. Finely slice the leeks. Melt a third of the butter in a frying pan, add the leeks and cook until just tender. Preheat the oven to 190c/170c fan/gas5. Grease a shallow ovenproof dish

2. Sprinkle a layer of leeks in the bottom of the dish. Top with a layer of sweet potatoes and sprinkle with a little paprika. Repeat, finishing with a layer of sweet potatoes.

3. Pour over the cream and dot with the remaining butter. Loosely cover with foil and bake for one hour, removing the foil for the last 10 minutes for a crispy outer layer.

Guest Recipes

2010-10-24T16:35:00.000+01:00

I have been comparing recipes with friends recently after discussing the blog and have decided to feature some of the better suggestions here.
I hope you enjoy them too!

Sonia's fresh tomato and bean soup
Ingredients:

900g/ 2 Lb ripe plum tomatoes
30 ml/2 tbsp olive oil
275 g/ 10 oz onions, roughly chopped
1 small chilli, chopped finely
2 garlic cloves, crushed
900 ml/1 ½ pints vegetable stock
30 ml/ 2 tbsp sundried tomato paste
10 ml/2 tsp paprika
15 ml/1 tbsp cornflour
475 g/15 oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
425 g/ 15 oz chopped fresh coriander
salt and pepper
1. Peel the tomatoes. Using a sharp knife make a small cross in each one and place in a bowl. Pour over boiling water to cover and leave for 30-50 seconds.
2. Drain off the tomatoes and peel off the skins. Quarter them and then cut each piece in half again.
3. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions, garlic and chilli for 3 minutes or until just beginning to soften.
4. Add the tomatoes to the onions, with the stock, sun-dried tomato paste and paprika. Season well with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Mix the cornflour to a paste with 30 ml water. Stir the beans into the soup with the cornflour paste. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
6. Adjust the seasoning and stir in the chopped coriander just before you serve.

Back to the kitchen

2010-10-17T21:44:00.000+01:00

A while back I used to add random recipes to this blog but I haven't done so for a bit so it's time to remedy that.

I have, as a lot of gardeners have,a glut of certain crops from time to time and need new and appetising ways of using up the extras, other than freezing.

So, as it's getting chilly out and I have beetroot, let's revive the habit.

Caramelised Beetroot.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as a side dish

8 small, raw beetroot
75g caster sugar
juice of 1 orange plus grated zest or 75ml orange juice
30ml of a delicately flavoured vegetable oil (e.g. sunflower
½ teaspoon cinammon, grated

Method

Scrub the beetroot and trim the stalks
Chop into 6 to 8 segments,
Put the orange juice, sugar, orange zest, oil and cinammon in a pan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar
Add the beetroot and mix well, so all the segments are coated with the mixture
Place on a baking sheet, spreading all the segments out so they aren't covered by other segments
Bake at 180 degrees C for about 40-45 minutes (depending on size of segment) until tender and sticky

I tried this one out today. It was probably one of the easiest recipes I've done for a long time and the hardest part was waiting for it to finish cooking before I could tuck in!

Hestercombe Gardens Special

2010-10-10T21:04:00.000+01:00

I have recently returned from a much needed break in deepest Somerset where the cider flows and the usually tender plants flourish, making it feel like someone transplanted Dickens England somewhere in Florida.
Whilst there, apart from some very beautiful long country walks, we enjoyed a trip to nearby Hestercombe Gardens.
As it is a beauty to behold, most of this blog will remain pictorial.

The theme for the gardens seemed to be a number of exquisite buildings positioned to utilise the magnificent views,not only of the gardens themselves but also of the surrounding countryside.

Due to the continuing restoration work, a lot of the buildings were very new in appearance. This felt a little confusing but given time they should 'age' well to fit in again.

Then to the amazing formal gardens, designed by the most famous partnership in English garden design , Jekyll and Lutyens.

Time to wrap up.

2010-09-03T21:58:00.000+01:00

I fixed my shed roof last week and it was a very timely repair. The rains that have followed since would be a nightmare to remedy during the colder, wetter and much shorter days of the coming autumn into winter. It's a good time to get everything else ready too.
Order up the autumn planting onions,shallots and garlic. Get the broad beans in and the fruit canes.
Clear the debris from the summer crops and prepare the beds for winter rest or autumn use.
Clean then pack away the canes and other growing supports ready for next year. A little care spent now will pay dividends when you get them out next spring.
Sown any biennial flower seeds for transplanting out later. Check you have enough hiding places for beneficial insects, hedgehogs and reptile pest controllers. Mulch any unused beds with either compost for heavy feeders or just a straw covering for root crop beds.
Protect any tender perennials and transfer any potted tender plants to a cold frame or unheated glasshouse.
Finally, if you really can't get out on the soil, be sure to have a few good gardening books, a few seed and plant catalogues and a good hot drink handy.

Getting ready for winter weather.

2010-08-29T23:28:00.000+01:00

It has become time to prepare the shed and the plot for autumn and the coming winter. For the shed, this means checking and replacing any roof felt that may be damaged. I have suffered some tearing during the spring and summer due to high winds, so it's time to get the tools out.

The old felt has to first be carefully removed. The edge rails that tuck the felt over the edge of the roof boards first have to be removed. Next, the longer rails that tuck under the length of the front and back eaves.

The damage means that all the old felt has to come off so the tacks that hold the felt have to be removed but can be reused if done carefully.

The roof boards are heavy chipboard as can be seen here. The boards themselves will absorb any moisture and swell before becoming crumbly and falling apart so it is wise to ensure the felt covers all the edges as well as the flat surfaces.Roofing felt can come in a number of colours due to the different minerals used. I stick with the standard green but I have no idea if the colours make any difference to performance.

The Felt is rolled out on a flattish surface then I use a complete piece of the old felt as a template for size, but using a tape measure would be safer. I just didn't have one with me.

The width of the felt meant I could cut two pieces which would overlap at the apex of the roof by about eight inches. The apex is where the two board edges meet so a double layer gives extra protection for the most vulnerable area.

Once the first piece is in places,lapping over the joint of the boards, it is tacked in place to avoid movement when fitting the second or outer piece. Once the second piece is laid on, overlapping the edge of the first at the top,I can finish tacking across the top edge and around the edges before tucking the sides in and fitting the retaining rails.

Once all the edges have been tucked in,tacked down and the rails have been fitted back in place ,the job is done and hopefully the rain will stay on the soil and not in my shed.

One tip is to be sure that apart from the edge that covers the apex, all other tacks should be on the very edges of the roof to avoid giving moisture a way under the felt.

Rain doesn't stop play

2010-08-27T15:37:00.000+01:00

Well, didn't we have a little storm?
It seemed to rain forever this week. I last managed to spend any time at the plot on Sunday but when I was there I weeded all the beds, tied in the triffid like Tayberry and the Greek tomatoes before cutting some cabbages (Greyhound) for home. Despite looking like one of those 3D puzzle blocks where the slugs had made random tunnels, they turned out to be good, hearty solid heads which made a very useful contribution to our evening meal on Monday.
The carrot seedlings from the recent sowing are becoming slug/bug food disappointingly. The Mooli and Scarlet Globe Radish seedlings are still surviving though ,which encourages me. I'm like a lot of others who text,tweet and message me on Facebook, in that I am getting very impatient with the tomatoes. They are bulging to almost bursting full of flavour but they are still greener than a Welsh Organic Literary Festival. The major problem is that all the rain is not only swelling the fruits, filling the cells in the fruit walls with liquid and bloating the stem, but it is making the climb up that engorged stem much easier for the hungry slugs. One of my largest fruits was found hollowed out today.
Today also presented the wheelbarrow I had left in a rush playing at being a mobile swimming pool. Luckily the wood I had been using to built another raised bed with was pretty much solid and will dry out in time to be put to other clever construction purposes in the future, although the plans for a good dry wood store are very prominent now.
On that subject, dry and storing, my brother in law dropped a new roll of roofing felt in today so I am now off to redress the roof of the little blue shed where I keep everything including my radio, which needs new batteries. Oh some days the costs are endless but at least the pleasure is too!

I love allotments, me!

2010-08-17T23:41:00.000+01:00

New Ground, Old Stories and Timeless Pleasures.

It is quite a busy time if you garden in the United Kingdom right now. We can look at the wonderful collections of plants from all over the world and wonder at the Rhododendrons of the Himalayas, the Orchids of the Amazon jungle, the glorious Asiatic Lilies and the Gigantic swaying Bamboos of China. Alternatively, we can find many if not all of these in a single garden in our own country.

We enjoy one of the most diverse and varied climates in the world, ranging from sub zero snow falls in winter to droughts and heat waves in summer. We can complain about flooding and freezing in autumn and even in late spring but we are blessed with such a wide spectrum of conditions when many countries barely have a few degrees variation over a year, resulting in a limited range of native plant species. The very temperate climate here means most plant conditions can be met with a little help and coaxing. We have, over history, gather collections of plants from every corner of the globe. The Victorians were renowned for their plant collections, with the wealthy and curious sending men out to find new specimens on expeditions that could take several years, even decades.

How do you know if a plant you have or like was one of those brought back from afar by a man in tweed and a back pack?

Brush up your Latin and look at the name of the plant. If it ends or begins with something that sounds or looks like a surname, it has probably been named either after its finder or the sponsor of the expedition.

Fortune, Forrest, Ward, Dickson and Fuchs all gave names to either plants or varieties of plants and there were many more.

If you want to start exploring new grounds, maybe a visit to the council offices should be on your list of destinations now that a new batch of allotment plots have been released at a site on the Bournville Estate. New allotments are harder to come by than low maintenance planting schemes that look interesting so I’m sure those new virgin plots won’t be unclaimed for long.

I love allotments.

It’s a short but sincere statement that comes from a deep place. When I was young, growing up in Weston, my parents had a house which backed on to the railway line. At that time, diesel fumes were considered more of a threat to greenfly that small children and asthma was a rarity but things may have changed since. Anyway, my father had a large stretch of land beside the railway line which was rented from the Railway Company, then British Rail. The days spent picking runner beans or peas or just playing while my father did his little jobs were some of my fondest memories. He had also tended a plot near the railway station itself, before the land was utilised for building. The line side plot meant it was close enough to home to pop out for five minutes or disappear for hours, depending on your schedule. That early experience with makeshift frames and saved string instilled in me a longing for a space to grow things, a place to go where I was master of all I surveyed. I went through the dark times, when school was my main interest and a certain young girl a major distraction, but after the girl became my wife and we moved into our first home, my immediate plans were not to decorate or fill the flat with new furniture but to dig up the patchy lawn and start sowing seeds. I sowed vegetable seeds, peas, onions and carrots. A few rows of potatoes too. We filled the border and rock garden with flowers but many of those were for cutting and placing in vases throughout the flat too.

The shed came with the flat and was out of bounds, being used by the landlord but I was happy with my little share of land.

It is that pride in producing something for the kitchen or the home, that self taught ability to string together some lengths of bamboo into a frame for runner beans to climb up, the feeling I still get when I pull up a gnarly, dirty beetroot or pop open a fresh green pea pod and count the peas inside that still puts a grin across my face when I find a few hours to spare to spend at my plot, or at a friend or new acquaintances plot. It is why I like to walk through our site, looking at the varied and plentiful crops others have lovingly tended. It is why I am always cheered to receive a text picture from my young nephews showing me the carrots or tomatoes they have grown and why I always try to have time to talk to complete strangers of any age and social background on our mutual subject of gardening.

If you don’t rent an allotment or have a small patch of land in the garden, give it a try. It’s not that far from growing flowers, most crops are annual and seed is relatively cheap even in a recession.

Mad, bad, hot times

2010-07-02T13:58:00.004+01:00

It's been very busy lately, as it always is this time of year. The weather has been spectacular for the sun lovers with endless days of non stop sunshine. It has meant the gardens have become very dry though. There are ways and means to help survive the dry spell without having to spend all days with a watering can in each hand, so lets look at the most popular areas first:

Lawns: Set the blade higher and cut less often. Longer leaf length on the grass plant allows it to absorb more moisture and to tolerate higher temperatures.

Use old bath water in a watering can and water late in the evening so the water can sink down before the heat of the next day.

Containers: Try to move to a shady part of the garden during the middle of the day when the sun is highest. Soak in a bucket of saved/recycled water every other day rather than sprinkling with a can daily. Again,last thing at night.

Fruit and Vegetables: These will suffer the most if left to dry out. Water new plants first, established fruit bushes and trees later. The older plants will have deeper root systems and more resistance. Try to mulch around trees and bushes after watering. As with the others, try to recycle household water, once absorbed it won't effect the taste. Water late and if possible try to use some sort of shading, perhaps using cloches painted with white wash or fleece with sides open to ventilate.

The biggest advice for all of these is to remember to help the plants to retain moisture by watering late and using shade.

Who knows, in a couple of months we could be warning of flooding dangers so be sure to have several water butts ready!

Just a visual

2010-06-28T16:30:00.003+01:00

Loganberries ripening.Along with some other fruit from the plot.One thing I do love growing is soft fruits .Most are longer term, lasting several years in some cases. The results are always tasty and always welcome! Most importantly, the majority can eaten raw,meaning hey don't always make it home!
My apple tree has reached some degree of maturity and this year promises to supply enough fruits for a few lunch boxes.
Red currants are the most under rated of the soft fruits. In puddings and desserts they are sharper than most soft fruits which makes for a great sauce for greasier meats such as lamb or pork and duck. Blackcurrants. The majority of all commercial crops are used for Ribena but don't discount them. They also make a great sharp sauce but also much better ice cream !

It's coming on strong.

2010-06-06T20:15:00.010+01:00

The first real crops are beginning to appear at the plot now, with early sown peas coming along in waves, thanks to a succession of sowing over several months. The radish were technically first but they barely constitute a real crop as there is a limit to how you can use them in a Sunday roast.More likely would be the broad beans that have now begun to fill the pods. My second harvest of peas were joined by some lovely small, tender and milder tasting broad beans.
Strawberries have been colouring up nicely too and today I managed to save six from the slugs. There are many more to come as this year looks to be a bumper years for soft fruits. My usual mass of currants are on target, as are the afore mentioned strawberries. The Loganberries have settled in this year and are now covered in ripening fruits although the blackberry is less enthusiastic. that may be the fact that it is more of an autumnal fruit, like the raspberries. There are many more raspberry canes this season, encouragingly. As for the other fruits, the gooseberry has come back to life after a very poor season last year, when they barely showed a single berry. The apple tree has now come through its frame building period and is now producing a modest crop of tiny but potential fruits. All in all, I'm very encouraged by the fruits this year. The veg hasn't been slacking wither, with my succession of Rocket new potatoes now starting to flower, so I'll be putting peas, beans and potatoes on the table soon.Hopefully, the carrots will be cropping just before the spuds run out but I know the parsnips will be a long way off,despite looking really healthy already. I have had such germination success with the parsnips that I have had to thin them twice as they have grown larger and larger without loss. The carrots haven't been as abundant but have still surprised me. The greens are holding true and I have to find room somewhere for a few rows of purple sprouting that are getting a bit big, I have greyhound spring greens in two beds making up enough cabbage for the year, with enough for one a week for 52 weeks and some for the slugs. Finally, with some rescued tomatoes and over 60 iceberg lettuce, the salad bowl should be safe too!

Basics continued

2010-05-11T21:05:00.009+01:00

Ok, we have seen the beginners tools. With the addition of the spade and fork (see below),we can start to build a more specialist collection. A tool set for the more experienced gardener, someone with the basic fundamental practices under their belt.

The Spade,specifically the digging spade. Not to be confused with a shovel or edging spade.
Particularly used for digging and moving soil. Variations are wide ranging but stick to a general digging spade.Try to find one that suits your height to avoid backache later. Don't be afraid to shop around.Have more than one if you have the space and finances. I have an old Spear and Jackson ergonomic spade for heavy prolonged digging and a stainless steel bladed standard spade for digging in muck or moving barrow loads of anything a bit sticky. I keep an old wooden handles basic steel one for loaning out. If I lose it or it comes back damaged I'm not too concerned.

The ergonomic spade has a longer handle,a shaft curved and shaped to provide the correct angle for transferring weight. When using one, the blade is pushed into the soil with the handle held forward so when pulled back to upright, the soil has already started to rise.
Next is the fork, or rather, are the forks.

The fork is another general tool or it can be specific to a particular task. I have a general use one for breaking up soil and turning beds over which have previously been dug. It has rounded narrow straight tines. I also have a fork which has slightly flattened wider tines and the same shaft design as the ergonomic spade. That is better for moving soil or compost and for lifting root veg as it spreads the force and is less likely to pierce crops,mainly potatoes.
You can buy specialist potato forks but they are too extreme for any other general use.
Finally I also have the old crusty fork with tines that have been worn to a deadly point. It is great for picking up trash or dry compacted compost and is again cheap enough to loan out.
The third tool you may have in your possession by now would be a pair of secateurs.
Now, I am not going to even start describing the various different models and why they differ but the main two types are the bypass and the anvil.

The Anvil type has, as the name suggests, a flat hardened anvil which the sharp blade presses against. These are good for heavy or tough work but the crushing action they use is damaging for some plants.

The Bypass type uses a passing cut,like scissors. The blade slices past the flat edge with a sharper action and gives a cleaner cut and is much better for softer materials.
Felco produce the very best secateurs and sell different sizes to fit different purposes but,like a spade, it is worth choosing one that suits your needs as a poor fitting size will eventually cause pain in your hand and possibly long term damage to the ligaments in your thumb.
Many of the basic tools rely on cutting or slicing through soil or plant material, so the next blog will elaborate on how to look after the tools you now own and keep them cutting efficiently.

Basics of the job.

2010-05-09T21:59:00.015+01:00

It was a bit of a mixed afternoon at the plot today. The beginning was good for the soul.I passed a young family, a mum and two or three daughters who were struggling to clear the long grass edging the plot they were trying to work on.I was on the way to strim my plot so asked if they needed any help?
Ten minutes later the grass had been scythed down and they were able to put there efforts into more rewarding work. I was happy to have helped someone get into gardening more and so needed no reward other than seeing them happy and went on with my work.
Now, the problem is this: On my way back home, I passed this and other plots which left me shocked by the basic lack of understanding of the very basic tools and how they are used.
I saw a trowel stuck in some roughly hacked soil, not a garden trowel but a builders. And a plot holder hacking at a weed clump with a rake, dragging it from the soil with a lot of wasted effort.
So, to help those who are keen but completely new to the whole garden world, is a quick beginners guide to the basic tools and their uses.

The basic garden trowel. Used to dig, cover and transport soil. Used to fill pots and to transplant young plants.

Builders trowel. No use unless you are pointing a garden wall. Note the lack of curve in the blade. No good for digging or carrying.

The Garden Rake. Used in a comb like fashion to move soil around on the surface.
Used to separate large debris, foreign objects, dead weeds and lumps of soil from the finer tilth of the plot.Used for levelling and covering and generally pulled and pushed across the surface.

The Dutch Hoe. Slides beneath the soil, parallel to the surface and slices through weeds and roots with a sharp front edge.

Draw Hoe.Used to draw hoe for earthing up,making shallow drills and covering sowings.
Can be used to cut through weeds but not specifically a weeding tool.

I intend to expand on the basics with other tools to be added as experience is gained but not beginner should really use more than these in the first year.

Warmer Weather

2010-04-25T21:13:00.002+01:00

It will soon be time to hear all the warnings regarding sun protection but it’s never too early to protect your precious things. Plants need protection too, sometimes from the same dangers.

The sun can scorch tender young leaves if left exposed. Water droplets act as tiny magnifying lenses and burn the surface cells causing serious damage. It is worth remembering that morning dew or light frosts can leave the water droplets, not just rain or watering. Watering late in the evening is always a better idea than a rushed morning drowning for these reasons. It also means the sun’s drying heat can’t absorb the moisture before it soaks down to the roots.

Watering is a key act as the younger underdeveloped rots of new seedlings will not be able to take up nutrients unless they are diluted with additional water.

Protection is also essential should we get any drying winds. Locating a new planting means taking into consideration any wind flow, including rolling currents caused by fencing or thick hedges. Strong winds will roll over obstacles and curl around at ground level, causing turbulent and dangerous wind currents for anything planted too close to the foot of a fence or wall. Always leave a large enough space between the two.

Older, developed shrubs can be used to filter and slow down strong winds if planted well. Starting with a primary windbreak, such as a thick evergreen hedge or a wall or preferably a fence, then a row of mixed dense shrubs, a further lower row of perennial herbaceous or semi herbaceous plants, then the more tender or susceptible plants. By using this system of planting, you can gradually break down the wind effect so that very little more than a breeze filters down to the edge of the border.

I mentioned a fence is preferred to a wall because of the simple fact that even a close woven fence panel will allow a certain amount of wind to slip through, lessening the force rolling over the top.

An old Japanese saying is that the tree that bends stays up while the solid wall will crumble, and in that light, a fence or hedge that will flex in the wind will always be better than a flat wall which will act very much like a sail, catching all the energy of the wind.

Remember to, being like a wall when you work in the garden will be destructive to yourself too. Flex when you are lifting heavy loads, bend when digging and make sure your muscles and joints are warmed up before starting anything too arduous!

Gardening is exercise too, so warm up like an athlete and warm down after to avoid that aching stiffness the next day!

Late starters

2010-04-07T22:21:00.005+01:00

So, it's technically here, Spring, but it's not really shouting about the fact.

I'm a fan of the old sayings, the country lore and one of the guides I go by has always been about March. 'In like a lion, out like a Lamb' basically, if the month starts out rather tempestuous,roaring like a Lion, it will end settled and calm,like a Lamb.

Unfortunately, this year March started pretty settled and inevitably April came in amid grey clouds and following snow flurries. It's not unusual to get late frosts up until May but we have a rose tinted view on meteorologist matters and we tend to find it incredible when the cold weather continues into the 4th or even 5th month.

In reality, it's quite common , hence the dates given by seed suppliers for safe sowing dates for non hardy seeds. They know when the weather can be reliably warm enough to risk our precious little life pods.

The hardiness, or ability to withstand low temperatures, has a recognised scale which is applied to all flora and can be defined by the Royal Horticultural Society as a series of various zones.

Every area across the globe has its own native plants and its own spread of temperatures, and as such each zone reflects the hardiness within that country. As we all love to try and grow the very things we shouldn't, the zones vary from country to country so you can check the zones for your area and find plants that will survive by checking the zones.

Ok, apart from all this talk of zones,what does 'Hardiness 'mean?

There are three degrees of hardiness for the gardener:

Hardy

Half-Hardy

Tender.

Hardy means the plant/seed can withstand seasonal amounts of frost. Seasonal meaning that should we get a penetrating ground frost in mid April that goes a foot into the soil, it may well suffer some damage but that would be extraordinary weather even in this age of extremes.

Basically, Hardy means you can sow or plant when there is still a risk of cold snaps and they need little if any protection. These are or originated from native wild plants or are plants from much colder climates and are therefore used to much worse weather than our temperate country will threaten.

Half hardy means the specimen will survive frost if established but may need some protection when sown. Generally sow or plant after danger of frost has passed and the plant will survive outside happily.

Tender, as the name implies, means the specimen will tolerate no amount of cold. These are ordinarily indoor plants or tropical plants which would need taken in at the first sign of frost.

Many of our annual bedding plants are half hardy, but we don't notice because the process of starting early indoors and then hardening off before planting out, followed by ripping it all out again a couple of months later is part of our culture now,but the indoor sowing and then hardening off is essential with all half hardy plants regardless of your planting scheme.

Sheds, the dinosaurs that roam the plots.

2010-03-07T23:22:00.003Z

Shed.
What is it about these ancient monuments of the weed covered savannahs, that bring back so many evocative memories of warm summers and endless days spent picking berries and watching swallows turn circles in a cloudless sky?
I adore these magnificent old masters,faded and patched, repaired way beyond their original identity and seeping out years of untold stories,tales of lost loves and rainy afternoons.

2010-02-20T20:34:00.001Z

It's been another cold crisp day here in North Somerset and the morning saw a frozen pond and a well wrapped up me. I'm a little concerned for the cabbage seeds and maincrop peas I sowed last week when it looked like the weather was improving.

2010-02-18T18:33:00.001Z

So, we've had some fine examples recently of why we shouldn't follow the sowing instructions on seed packets to the very letter.
The normal instructions include vague bar charts saying indoors, outdoors under glass etc plus harvest. If we were to follow the instructions, we would have several rows of seeds presently under several inches of snow or at the very least flooded out!
Like wise with harvesting, we usually crop by eye, judging when something looks ready rather than waiting until the dates indicated or cropping before the fruits are ripe.

Jeep

2009-11-26T22:02:00.002Z

Just enough education to perform

Ok, I promised, well, mentioned some educational stuff so here we go. Pencils sharpened and notepads ready?

Monocts and Dicots

No, that’s not a sort of cheery alien toy or new Disney character but the two areas that all flowering plants are divided into. Full names are monocotyledons and dicotyledons but monocot and dicot is easier.

Mono (one) Di (two) refers to leaves, in this case seed leaves. When your precious little seed germinates it will have either one or two, depending on what it is. Grasses are the easiest to see this on.

A Monocot have a single leaf with veins running parallel to their length, slender non-woody stems (except Palms) and flower parts arranged in threes. With Monocots, the sepals are modified to resemble petals.

Sounding complicated?

The simple rule is look at the leaf. If it rolls around the stem to make a sheath, then i’s generally a monocot.

Dicots?

Well, yes, they are the rest. Easily identifiable as having two distinct seed leaves coming off of a single stem. Those leaves have a network of veins thick or woody stems when mature and flower parts which come arranged in multiples of 4, 5, 7 or more. The flowers are usually enclosed in leaf like sepals, as when a rose is in bud for example.

Now, it is homework time. Have a look around your garden, look at the flowers in the florists or just peek at the neighbours greenhouse and see if you can spot the differences!

Curtains down

2009-10-18T19:08:00.005+01:00

It's the end of the year realistically at my plot and in the garden at home. My harvest for today reflected the dramatic differences in the climate and the effect it has had on what we grow.
A couple of green sweet peppers grown outdoors
Two Butternut Squash
Outdoor tomatoes
Black Grapes
Kale
Beetroot
Chard
Parsley

A few years ago, no one knew about the number of squashes available to grow and fewer ate them. Now no self respecting chef leaves butternut risotto off the menu. Grapes were a sign of student holidays, fruit picking in hotter foreign climes. Even now, most grapes are grown under glass. These were in open ground,unprotected from the weather and produced a few small bunches of very sweet if small ripe grapes.
The odd picture that hit me when I approached the plot also made me question the weather. The leaves on all the squash plants, including the courgettes, had been blackened by a frost yet the tomatoes were untouched, and the grape vine was positively thriving.
Maybe we are going to suffer the benefits of the greenhouse effect before the worst comes along.
The downside of autumn is also one of the great pleasures. The frosty mornings highlight the cobwebs and bring a shimmering haze to the first light of the day. The incandescent reds of the foliage on the trees echoes the burnished crimson hues of the evening sunsets. The spring flowers have their bright colours but the autumn has a palette that warms us like the bonfires I will be enjoying as the days get colder and shorter.
When it gets too cold to handle fiddly seeds and to wet to pull weeds, it will be a welcome change to huddle up with a hot coffee in the potting shed or greenhouse and start preparing for next year.
I have sweet pea , early broad bean and early garden pea seeds to sow in pots. I will sow a few outdoors too but the pot will give me a head start and provide substitutes if those outside get eaten by pests or hit by extreme weather or some other disaster.
I grew my sweet peas a few years ago as show blooms. It means more work than normal but rewards you with bigger flowers and longer stems. If I follow that route again, I can blog my methods as I go along.
It's almost time to put the garden to bed . The beds themselves are being cleared and covered for winter.
In the garden, the shrubs are having the last trim of the year, deadheaded and clipped back ready for the big sleep. All the dried stems of the herbaceous plants have been cut back to the soil and composted and the leaves on the trees and hedges are turning into warm red blankets.
It's been a mixed year and I will review it at a later date but I am quite looking forward to the winter season already!

October chill-i !

2009-10-01T23:33:00.006+01:00

A Pepper grown on my plot, outdoors, unprotected. It is a chilli plant that I bought as a seedling along with a few of its siblings. Those perished early on but this fella persisted and now bears not one but two fair sized fruits.
It has been relatively quiet at the site recently but it is a good time to sit back and review the last few months, to reflect on the successes and failures, to decide which to grow more of, which to grow less of and which of this years experiments will never grace your soil again!
I have failed with a number of my crops sadly. I can put some of those unsuccessful attempts down to the usual suspects of disease and pests but I must admit to some mistakes by my own hand.
I tried to grow too much in a small space. I set up a trellis pyramid to train squash and legumes up, whilst salads and herbs grew beneath. The mistake was not packing as much goodness into the soil as possible before planting and for making the area too small. The squash failed to put on much growth,stalling shortly after a pest attack almost wiped it out. The beans never took off, making no more than two feet of growth before the maincrop had finished cropping. The peas which grew up one face of the pyramid gave a crop but it was sickly and short.
In the other beds, the potatoes were passable, not entirely plentiful but flavoursome and I avoided the dreaded blight that many on the same site lost entire crops to.
Likewise, many people saw their tomato plants hit by the tell-tale brown streaks of tomato blight. As I advised one plotholder, the safest way to deal with those plants is to burn them. Putting them, or any diseased plant material,on a compost heap is just asking for more trouble when you spread that compost. Rarely do allotment heaps reach a high enough inner temperature to kill disease spores so the heap acts as an overwintering host for the disease to grow and strengthen before hitting out next year when you spread it all over your plot.
Now is the time to start clearing your beds and as much as possible should be composted but all diseased or very tough material such as brassica stems can be burnt now that the summer ban period is over.
As one plotholder I spoke to this afternoon observed,"You should've seen it here this morning, it was like a warzone. There were fires everywhere.." and he chuckled as he said it. The green lobby may want to stop gardeners from lighting fires but we know some things have to be burnt to make the soil clean and to maintain that greener, environmentally sound lifestyle. The alternative is an increase in pests and diseases leading to more over use of chemicals to counteract them. A fire which burns at a very high temperature also burns cleaner, producing much less smoke,with dry material producing much less smoke than damp.
So, pile your heap high but burn your bonfire hot and fast if you want to save the Polar Bears!

Work and rewards

2009-08-21T21:22:00.004+01:00

It's a busy time in the garden and on the plot. The lawns will be in full flight and need cutting several times a week now. Hedges will benefit from a trim and the weeds will be racing to flower and seed every time your back is turned. When you get the chance to weed, you'll notice the soil is dusty and dry, so watering is going to be a chore on a daily basis if you haven't worked out ways to reserve moisture. A good mulch after a good soaking will help keep the water in, but wait until the evening when the sun is going down and not sucking the juice out of the ground. Water a little if the ground is too hard to remove the roots of the weeds but leave the good soaking for the plants you want to enjoy and water after you've weeded.
Just because you are regularly cropping them don't think fruit and vegetables won't appreciate the same treatment. I sometimes save a big sack of lawn clippings to cover the soil under my runner beans. It lowers the soil temperature and encourages plump string less pods.

Other Jobs To Watch

Continue picking beans to stop them getting tough
Lift onions
Sweetcorn should be checked for brown tassles-they show the cobs are ripe.
Transplant leeks to final beds
Harvest garlic,onions and shallots
Finish planting brassicas
Tidy plots as you clear crops
Feed plots that will need it for next crop-compost is a mulch too!
Water thirsty plants-Squashes,tomatoes and beans will thank you for it.
Keep looking out for caterpillars and slugs-squash on sight!
Continue weeding between plants
Dig up main crop potatoes
Think about next year-order those onion sets,shallots and garlic bulbs for autumn planting.

Jobs for the flower borders

Collects seeds to increase your stock
Keep the flowers coming by deadheading regularly
Take shrub cuttings from non flowering shoots
Sow overwintering annuals and biennials

Recipe time!

Make the most of the glut of Courgettes with these recipes, donated by people who follow me on Twitter.

Sarah Bailey's Chocolate and Courgette Cake

350g Self Raising Flour
4 tsp Baking Flour
100g Dark Brown Sugar
200g Caster Sugar
4 tblsp Cocoa Powder
120g Butter
125ml Oil
130ml Milk
Vanilla Essence
100g Good Dark Chocolate(min 70%)
3 Eggs
450g Courgettes peeled and finely grated

Method

Pre heat oven to Gas mark 4/ 180 c.
Cream the butter, sugar and oil together, beat the eggs with the milk and add to the butter and sugar mix.
Carefully add the flour,baking powder,cocoa and vanilla essence until thoroughly combined.
Break up the chocolate and mix in along with the grated Courgettes.
Fill a loose based 10" cake tin and place in the top part of the oven for between 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
When the cake has cool enough, top with a chocolate grenache.

Time to sow

Its still not too late to sow some seeds for a continuing crop. Try a few of the following:

Autumn/Winter variety Cauliflowers
Leaf Salad varieties
Autumn Winter Lettuce-Winter Density etc.

Too late to sow but still time for plants

Kale- a winter stalwart
Sprouting Brocolli- one of my favourites
Brussel Sprouts- If you like them
Leeks-As above,you should be planting your own into final positions.Remember to drop into the hole then water,not backfill the hole.

Another recipe to finish with

No quantities this time, just use what suits your tastes.

Chop courgettes into chunks and fry with basil and garlic,then simmer in stock until soft.
Blitz in a processor (be careful, hot liquids expand!) then stir in cream and parmesan if liked.
If you don't enjoy Parmesan cheese, substitute with natural plain yoghurt instead.

Well, I have plenty to do and enough mistakes to fill a new blog but until I find the time to do so,

Good Gardening!

Wellies, washouts and wormeries!

2009-07-29T20:54:00.010+01:00

It's been a mixed month for weather. I booked the last few days of June off work, intending to get some time in at the plot and was very fortunate with some of the hottest days this year falling in the first days of July and the tail end of my holiday. I actually returned to work with an impressive tan. I of course didn't wish to gloat so wore my whitest shirt on the first back and spent several hours with my sleeves rolled up and working near light fabrics!

But that was the opening week of this month. Since then the much lauded barbecue summer has been, at best, intermittent.

We were warned earlier this decade that global warming would bring extreme weather. Most of us, myself included, thought the emphasis would be on the warming part. Garden gurus advised on desert plants and water conservation, medical experts warned against skin cancer and that nice Scottish chap on tv tried to sell us solar panels along with triple glazing. Sadly we are having the extreme weather across all forms. Flooding followed by record breaking heatwaves, snowfalls that bring the country grinding to a halt and, more recently, mini tornadoes or funnel clouds along the south west and welsh coasts.

The desert planting schemes will have been as relevant as a bog garden or an alpine scree bed, which is why many of this year’s winning designs at Chelsea and other garden shows have been strong on hard landscaping, the bricks and mortar or paving and arbors that provide the skeleton of the garden rather than the actual plants. Without being able to determine the growing conditions to come in the following months, it is difficult to be specific with a planting scheme. Better perhaps to design a colour theme and find varieties to fit your palette nearer to the day.

The combination of a nature friendly policy and a wet but warm summer has devastated parts of my allotment with slugs rampaging over my salads and greens, decapitating new shoots and seedlings and with caterpillars settling in their thousands amongst the brassicas. I fear my attempts to keep the pigeons off my cabbages has meant all feathered predators have given the plot a fly past and allowed the juicy bugs free reign. I netted my soft fruits and have reported bumper crops but I may have been protecting the currants and strawberries against an enemy that had decided to look elsewhere much early in the season. The raspberries, tayberries and blackberries have been left uncovered with no noticeable losses.

Every year has its losses and its champions and this year is looking good for fruit and alliums despite last year’s white onion rot problem. There have been reports of potato blight from around the site and online but my new potato crop barely registered an appearance so I have to wait to see whether there will be enough of a main crop to differentiate.

The hot weather and regular downpours have produced perfect conditions for accelerated growth and created lots of sappy weak stems for the slugs and snails and other pests to gorge on. The weeds have grown tall and thick in these conditions too but they must taste like Brussels sprouts to a school boy because the bugs don't seem to have left a mark on them!

The compost heap has always been seen as the engine room of the garden or allotment but recently there has been a noticeable move towards a more advanced form of composting, the wormery.

All compost heaps contain or should contain plenty of worms. They convert the vegetation, paper and other ingredients into friable healthy nutrient rich compost but wormeries work more intensively as a breeding and feeding ground for worms. The waste is added as a bedding and food source for the nursery that holds thousands of young worms. These beds of worm youngsters are stacked like a beehive set on its side. This allows smaller pieces of food and liquid to pass through each layer until only the finest compost and the richest liquid reaches the bottom tray, where the liquid can be taken off via a tap and the compost removed by a slide out tray.

The concept has been a great production line for worm cast compost and many small holdings run profitable businesses selling worm compost to discerning gardeners but the idea first came to my attention when I started growing pumpkins many years ago. I had a friend whose father had a wormery. I visited them at home one day and was offered this gallon container of evil smelling brown liquid to use as a plant feed for my plants. I started by diluting the murky satanic juice with water but as the beasts grew to huge proportions, I diluted less and less until they were getting two or three feeds a day of neat worm wee!

The effect was phenomenal but I have yet to start my own worm farm!

Fruitfulness

2009-07-28T23:12:00.006+01:00

It is raining again. That favoured sentence that we love to say almost as much as we dislike hearing. We talk about the weather more than any other subject in the U.K. and as such grumble about the weather more than celebrating it.

So, while the wet conditions may keep me from the plot, it doesn’t keep us from wanting to do something with all these crops the surplus water is creating. All those juicy fruits and tasty vegetables need to be used or stored so rather than just mull about getting bored; here are some tips and recipes.

Tomato and Basil Tart

Ingredients:

Short crust pastry made with 175g (6oz) flour and 75g (3oz) fat

300g (10 1/2 oz) tomatoes halved, small-medium sized (own grown preferably)

100g (4oz) Feta or hard goat’s cheese

A large handful of torn Basil leaves (from the garden?)

Good Olive Oil

Balsamic Vinegar

Ground Black Pepper

Method:

Roll out and line a greased shallow flan dish with pastry.

Prick the bottom with a fork and bake for 10 minutes at 220 C/425 F/Gas mark 7.

Halve tomatoes and arrange over the base in a single layer, cut side down.

Season with pepper and a drizzle of vinegar.

Back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Crumble the cheese over the tomatoes, sprinkle over the basil leaves and olive oil then pop back in the oven again for the last 20-25 minutes.

After allowing to cool, if you can wait that long, you’ll have slightly soggy but delicious pastry and a dish that will serve 3-4 people.

Tip: Like all Legumes (pea/bean family) pea roots will have tiny nodules along the hair roots which store nitrogen. If you leave the roots to decompose down in the soil after harvesting the last of your crop, they will release that store of plant food back into the soil.

Nitrogen is good for leaf growth so following peas with a leafy crop such as a brassica (cabbages, Swede, radish etc) that will benefit from the extra boost is a good idea.

Bees are having a rough time this year with record numbers of hives suffering losses and bees themselves fighting off disease problems so you may find pollination is low on some of your squash or bean plants. Tomatoes, butternuts and courgettes can all be given a hand with a soft artists brush. Brush pollen on the anthers as near to midday as possible and then spray with clean water in the evening when it’s cooler to help set the fruits. Just remember to avoid the cucumbers. Pollination makes cucumbers bitter

Carrot fly is the arch nemesis of the orange root lover so confuse the culprit with a low hedge of onion smelling chives. Chives are always good to have around just for the flowers even if you don’t want the leaves for the kitchen and carrot flies hate strong onion smells and can’t fly high enough to go over either!

Mono cultures are not natural playgrounds for beneficial insects so try growing some colourful salads amongst the flower borders where nectar rich daisy like flowers will draw the predatory insects that will protect your food and confuse the pests.

You should be harvesting peas, salads and the last of the early potatoes now along with soft fruits and cane fruits.

Soft fruits are, as the name implies, the softer fruits such as strawberries. Top fruits are simply fruits that grow on higher plants such as Apples, Pears and Cherries. Cane fruits, yes, grow on canes. Think Blackcurrant, Red or even White currants, Gooseberries, Jostaberries and others. Raspberries can be grouped with Blackberries and the hybrids under the heading Brambles, as they have a unique way of fruiting on stems that need to be wound over a support rather than being thick enough to stand alone like the Canes.

You may read the name Drupe, referring to some top fruits. This comes from the botanical description of a fleshy fruit with a single stone centre containing one seed and coming from a single flower. These are more commonly called stone fruits and will include Cherries, Plums and the related Damsons, Nectarines and Peaches.

Well, if the weather breaks for long enough, I will be back out and reporting on what I’m doing in the garden and on the plot but until then, I’ll be working hard sampling the products of the kitchen. It’s a dirty job but....

2009-07-04T22:24:00.003+01:00

The plot received special visitors this week in the form of Westonsupermum and the subject of her regular blogs, little Celeste. The pair of them had been for a visit and a cup of shed tea once before, to discover chickens, snails and all the wonders that an only innocent child can imagine. The weather on both occasions threatened to foil any plans but changed for the better at the eleventh hour.
The visit this time coincided with the ripening fruits on the plots and meant I could send them away with lots of lovely fresh produce. That is to say, what was left after a sticky juice covered little angel had successfully tasted everything. All except the new potatoes got the thumbs up and finding and bagging up the potatoes became a favourite game once we discovered lots of wiggly worms in the potato bed!
One thing about allotment gardening that most non-growers fail to understand is that we don't grow as a means to an end. We don't grow purely to supply a demand from the home kitchen, we also grow for the pleasure of growing. Seeing someone enjoying the by products of our hobby is a major bonus. I love to give away my produce, it let's me know I'm getting it right and my biased opinion isn't that wrong!

Time for a leek

2009-07-01T14:50:00.007+01:00

It's just past NPT (New Potato Time) so tradition dictates that the next crop to follow and utilise the freshly broken soil should be the flat cap wearing old timer of the Allium family, the Leek.
The whole system of raising this little welsh favourite is against most widely held horticultural practice. From sowing indoors, then planting out before being replanted, to the idea of dropping into a hole and NOT back filling, it all feels against the grain to a new gardener. Despite this, it works as it has for centuries. Leeks are grown from tiny black seeds like most onion family members. Sown in a slightly light soil and in bunches, they are best started indoors then transferred to the great outdoors to harden before heeling in. They are planted out by a method rarely used for any other vegetable.

You finally find a use for that broken spade/fork handle you've kept at the back of the shed and, by rounding off the broken shaft, make a dibber. Utilising your new tool, after lightly treading the soil surface to consolidate it, make a straight hole approximately eight to ten inches deep. (Metric holes are available through other blogs). Drop your neatly trimmed seedling, pencil thick, into said prepared orifice. Now, this is where something important happens: we don't fill with soil and firm as we would normally when planting or transplanting something. What happens is , we water directly into the hole, allowing the water to draw the loose soil in.
This allows the soil to surround the stem, blanching the green leaves to a white barrel. No other plant is treated like this. Celery is frequently blanched but usually with a covering collar and a bank of soil above ground level. Witloof chicory is blanched to make it edible but, again, by exclusion of light above ground.

Now, why the trimming? When the seedlings are transplanted, they suffer a major shock and can lose a lot of water through transpiration, that's sweating through the leaves in layman's terms. The roots are trimmed because, apart from stopping the excessive new growth when transplanted , they fit into the hole without dragging soil down as you drop them in. As pointed out earlier, Celery is also blanched and I have been trying out an old method for my crop this month.The old gardeners used a tall collar of corrugated cardboard to wrap around the bunched stems and to protect against the soil rotting the centre. Whilst a great method of blanching, this method is not without it's problems, mainly that it provides slugs and snails with a sheltered feast, so I have had to use organic pellets to deter them from my precious crop. Around the collared stems I have drawn up banks of soil, to hold the Celery firmly upright and to back up the light exclusion. I also imagine there is an element of benefit from the additional heat of the surrounding soil. The leeks utilise the food left in the soil from the potato crop, which itself is a root crop. Now although thought of as a root, the leek is in fact a stem comprising of bundled leaf sheaths, therefore utilising foods that the potato leaves would not have maximised. This is one of the main advantages of crop rotation: using crops that don't share a common food requirement. An alternative crop to follow potatoes is sometimes one of the Legume family, peas or beans. They require flower and fruit feed so again, don't suffer from the lack of root food that the potato has caused. The mass of humus and compost that was heaped upon the potato during it's planting and growth has been broken down during the growing season by bacteria and earthworms and still, to some extend ,remains available to follow on crops. Any plant that is transplanted here or is grown from a reasonably large seed, such as peas or beans, will do better than fine seeds as the soil structure is still quite rough and not ready to be broken down to a seed bed.
Root crops such as carrots or parsnips, the tap roots, would be a disaster here, as the soil is still quite rich in nutrients and there for would encourage split roots, or forking as it is known. Fruit could be planted to follow but timing is the problem and there are some questions over disease complications.
On the subject of fruit, I am finding this year to be a bumper time for soft fruits. My strawberries have been long fruiting and very plump with it, giving good sized fruits in abundance over a three week period from three year old plants. My Tayberries(a blackberry/raspberry hybrid) have fruited well in only their second year on site and the massive Black Butte Blackberry is on course to produce many a crumble over the next few days since I decided to weave the stems horizontally across and old bed frame, encouraging bud production. That's this blogs top tip: To produce more fruiting buds on any fruit bush or tree, bend or tie the new stem over to as near an arch as safely possible. The sap will grow upwards and search for an outlet, finding no leading stem means it will force the plant to produce buds, which because of the location along the stem, will generally become fruit buds. Victorian fruit cages generally had at least one plum espalier with tips tied down to ground pegs for just this purpose.

Bruised,scratched and aching for all the right reasons.

2009-06-07T10:33:00.004+01:00

I was a child once. No, stop it, I really was. I used to run around in my school uniform on hard grey concrete, bumping off other little terrors and crashing into rough stone walls. It was fun at the time and it never entered my parents heads that it could be seen as a risk or that, should my infant knee get slightly grazed, they could sue the school authority for rediculous amounts of money. Now, children are more protected but they also do so much more than just dash about like manic things.
I visited my old infant/junior school recently. I resisted the urge to run about with my arms waving aloft and screaming as I am 42 now with a job and a serious face but I did feel a twinge of fear when I walked through the hall to the back playground, knowing in my childsmind that I would be yelled at if I broke into a trot.
" NO RUNNING IN THE HALL!!"
I was there at the request of a chamber colleague, Jenny from Barclays Business Unit, who was organising a charity project.
Since then, after some crafty negotiations and chamber charm offences , we have turned a small,enclosed dumping ground into a learning garden for the reception to year six pupils.
Here's a quick series of mobile phone pictures taken during the 10 hour rainstorm which decide to drop by to help!

In the end, after donations from Buildbase WSM,Barclays , Homebase,Hutton Garden Centre (Thanks former pupil Lucy Capstick!) and Ace and Worle skips, the school has 2 raised beds, 1 weather station, runner beans,peppers,tomatoes,a bird feeder and a hose reel.They can recycle th kitchen scraps and shredded office paper in two compost bins and learn about leaves,flowers and scents with a selection of plants including a wide range of herbs and a lovely Redbud tree.
More details to follow, once my aching body recovers!

Planting the seeds for future gardeners.

2009-05-25T12:11:00.002+01:00

This June, the 6th to be accurate, I will be helping the lovely people at Barclay's Business Unit WSM to build a garden for the children of Walliscote Junior School in Weston-super-Mare.
I attended Walliscote in my long lost youth so it will be a strange but welcome experience to return and give something back for the wonderful start in life the teachers and staff there gave me.
I know too well the dull and uninspiring concrete playground and the ugly pipes that stick out like burnt trees on scorched earth there. The sun was always too hot with nowhere to find shade and the rain would always find you during winter so it's hoped that we can build a little space for the budding horticulturists to learn about how the weather effects plants, how seeds become huge sheltering trees and how we can grow our own food without importing things from thousands of miles away.
If you live near enough, why not come along between 9 am and 5 pm and lend a hand?
All and any help will be greatly appreciated and you can bask in the glow of knowing you've been a part of something worthwhile.
Money is always welcome but physical help is needed more than anything.
Hopefully I'll see some of you there!

Down with Hoes and Blades

2009-05-07T21:48:00.006+01:00

Hoe Culture

O.K. Let’s not get upset, I've not turned into a rapper or gangster. I am talking about garden implements, tools of the soil. As it now turns out, I’ve become rather fond of my Hoes .

I used to find the Draw hoe of very little use as my soil was too hard and dry to be drawn and the Dutch hoe was a complete mystery to me. I would stab at the sun baked clay and watch the sparks fly off the dull blade. Now, some tears later and with well manured and toiled soil, I find my hand reaching for the Dutch hoe on almost every visit. The trick, I stumbled upon, is to slice thin layers of soil with the blade set at just the right angle, like a carpenters plane taking slivers of wood off a door. Once those slivers of soil are released, they break down to a fine crumb very quickly. Hoeing through small weeds is a simple slicing action as the blade travels through the dusty soil. The larger weeds I can stab at until the blade chops through the thick fleshy stalks. Hoeing down the emerging weed seedlings usually uproots them and they die on the soil surface, cutting through the stem of a fleshy developed weed, such as a Dandelion, won’t stop it growing but will weaken it, so eventually it will die. It also serves to stop the plant from flowering and spreading its unwanted offspring all wherever the prevailing breeze carries them.

The action of constantly pushing the Dutch hoe through the soil deepens the workable depth of soil, so making it easy to draw the loosened material up around plants when banking or earthing up. The Draw hoe isn’t as much of a weed control tool as its Dutch cousin, preferring to act as an earth mover. When sowing peas, it’s a simple task to draw out a shallow channel for broadcast sowing. When making a trench for adding compost or other material, the Draw hoe is the tool for the job. Banking soil up to blanch Celery, earth New Potatoes or encourage more roots on a Cucumber falls into Draw Hoe territory.

Now, I get disappointed if there are no weeds for me to chop with my hoe, or any soil to loosen.

I just like the meditational rhythm of the to and fro action of the hoe, breaking through another thin layer of soil, letting the soil absorb the rain more readily, aerating it and creating a depth of soil that roots can penetrate with little resistance.

It’s another one of those peaceful, calming almost hypnotic past times I find just lifts the problems of the world from my shoulders and eases me into a quiet family evening and following it up with a good session of watering just rounds things of nicely.

But be warned: a sharp blade can slice through an emerging seedling indiscriminately and will kill off a prized plant as easily as it will a weed, so stay alert to just where you push that tool.

Sweetcorn and The Space Race

2009-04-30T18:52:00.006+01:00

It's been a while since it happened, but the space problem has raised it's head again. Now, while I may be a fan of sci-fi and all things astronautical, I'm talking about space of a more earthly kind. Or a lack of space and earth to precise. I have just transplanted another 3 rows of Greyhound Cabbage, plus the same of Saladin Iceberg Lettuce. I have thinned out my Purple Sprouting but thrown the thinnings in the compost rather than transplanting them as I am just running out of available space to put things. It's always the same, the garden equivalent of eyes too big for my belly. I sow and grow far more than I can find room for. It is a perennial problem for me.

So, what have I done to help alleviate the situation? I have just bought 10 Celery plants and a pack of Beetroot seeds. Ok, the Celery have been planted in the trench between the rows of Asparagus , which saves space and helps with the eventual blanching process and the Beetroot was sown in gaps where the cabbages have been transplanted from but there are still more crops to go in before any come out. Anyway, I've been hoeing like a man possessed of late and it's showing signs of being worth the effort. Bindweed and marestail keep popping up only to face the chop and the constant starvation of photosynthesis should start weakening the roots soon. I spend over a week digging one bed, picking out every single root or stem of every type of weed I could find. Since then I haven't seen a single leaf pop up in that bed. The others I have rooted out as I've gone along and I'm chopping the remaining ones down as soon as they appear. With pernicious weeds such as Bindweed and Mare's tail, this multi-pronged attack is the only way to tackle things.
Back to the good stuff though, the successful space grabbing veg and fruit. The Strawberries are flowering wonderfully well and I have started spreading shredded paper around them, it's my green substitute for straw and it uses up the shreddings that would normally go in the compost. I damp it all down with the can before leaving it as it can get quite windy at the plot and I don't want to try and fetch it all back when it ends up in the brambles at the other end of the site!
The third sowing of Broad Beans has broken through the soil and there are a couple of Courgette seedlings alongside them. The red and white onion beds are going strong and. dare I risk say
ing it, with no bulbs having bolted yet. Likewise the Shallots, a favourite of the Head Chef and Bottle Washer as a pickling ingredient way beyond the humble silverskin onion. The Sweetcorn, raised in modules at home, have now been located in there final place in a block formation at the plot where they will, hopefully, bring me lots of sweet succulent cobs around August. Once again, they are in a block because they are wind pollenated and planting in rows risks huge disappointments if the wind blows from the wrong direction, a 3 out of 4 chance.
Blocks mean the crop has a much higher chance of successfully pollenating and producing those full yellow juicy cobs. The plants have both male and female flowers on each stalk, with the male being above the female. On a dry, still day the pollen may just fall to the female beneath but generally the wind carries the tiny grains from plant to plant.
My own personal success is with the Parsley. Tradition has it that whomever in the household can grow the Parsley runs the home. I know, it's my allotment and the wife doesn't grow anything there, but just being able to germinate it, without resorting to all sorts of special tricks such as boiling water or freezers, makes me proud.
My old mini(midi) greenhouse frame has had a new cover for this year, courtesy of my daughter's new bed. The mattress bag, polythene, makes a nice translucent covering for what doubles as a shelving unit during the winter. My tray of chillies in modules became the first tenants. I mentioned on Twitter that I am trialing all three growing conditions with chillies this year; House plant, Greenhouse and outdoors in the bed. I've grown in beds before and had some degree of success but I want big crops of nice hot red fruits.
As I have had more seedlings germinate from my Tomato seeds this year than normal, I will be popping some Marmande in with the chillies later. I know better than to mix cucumbers in with Tomatoes so I won't be making it a threesome.
The final row of maincrop potatoes, Rooster, are in. That's the back breaking done for another few months. Just need to get shifting on the Runner Beans and I'm almost there.

Hints of Jasmine

2009-04-28T11:51:00.000+01:00

The softer, warmer light of late spring into early summer has found me of late, wandering between allotment beds in the evening. It’s about then that the heat of the day has subsided and the madness of the daily grind is behind me, leaving me free to relax and tend to the emerging new life that peeks out from the soil at my feet. The fresh seedlings hold promises of crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes and spicy radishes but then are as fragile as any new life and need tender care and gentle encouragement to not only survive but thrive. As well as hoeing carefully between the rows, regular watering is the key to success. Until the roots have established and developed a network of searching tips that draw up soil-locked moisture through the magical sounding process of osmosis, the plants are dependent on surface watering, either by rainfall or by our own hands, with a can or hose.
If you are able to provide watering, and not everyone is, then can I make a plea for the selection of a fine rose?
A rose in this instance, is the filter of sorts that regulates the flow of water from the can; much like a shower head does and, like a shower head, can come in a variety of flow speeds. Most, if not all manufacturers only supply the one basic rose with the can and then it’s quite often a poor choice.
If you can, try and buy a better quality one from a specialist outlet. A cheap rose that comes with the can is ok for heavy watering of established plants but is far too heavy for a fragile seedling. The last thing you should try to do is batter and drown a new seedling.
Once the seedlings have become plants, they can survive without our watering but ideally we want them to prosper not survive, so a good soaking if it hasn’t rained for a couple of days will help plump up the fruits and swell the vegetable roots. Remember, wind can be very drying as well as sun.
Anyway, back to the romantic imagery.
It’s a sure fire way to ease away the stress and strains of modern life, just wandering from bed to bed, border to border with a full watering can, dispensing life giving fluids to all your charges. The can dictates how fast the water flows, so it’s no use trying to rush about, you move at a slower pace, getting the job done eventually. The haste of the day slides away as you watch the water seep into the dry soil. If, like me, you have clay soil that can imitate house bricks, on a still day, if you listen very carefully, you can hear a soft hissing sound as the soil sucks the water up. If it is quiet enough for you to hear it, then relish the peace and tranquillity while you can for as much as responsibility and reward may drive the wheels of industry, the task of watching over all your young new shoots as the struggle for life dwarves the banality of the wage earning mundane day to day existence and that moment when you hold the world in a silent capsule of greenery and innocence disappears as fast as the water.
But beware the horrors of the garden, the disappointment that hides behind each glorious success. Nothing can compare to the soul destroying, plummeting feeling that engulfs you when you discover something evil has chewed the only leaves off your Lettuce or nibbled through the stem of your Swiss chard. Slug pellets work for me but I try to use those that claim to be child and pet friendly. That is somewhat an empty claim if you either keep molluscs as pets or you are a mother snail. Meanwhile other less sinister alternatives are available to try to limit the damage of the slimy enemy, including stale beer, mashed bran or crushed egg shells. I have neither the time nor patience to dry and finely crush egg shells and I have yet to leave a beer unfinished so I find pellets, organic and friendly, the best option for me. The only bran I see is at breakfast and the jury is out as to whether it would be tastier for the slugs than it is for me.
When you have finished the watering, hoeing between the developed rows and tying in any loose climbers, it’s hard to resist leaning on your hoe and looking smug and satisfied with yourself. Enjoy that moment, take a picture while the plot looks tidy and fresh and all in order, because overnight the weeds will double in number, the seedlings will no doubt collapse or be eaten and the shorn grass paths will adopt the guise of some African high grass plain with a sward that could hide a battalion of tanks. Good soil for growing plants is good soil for all plants, wanted or not, friend or foe and weed or selected specimen and your grassy footpath is a mass of individual plants and creeping low shrubs that thrive on abuse and neglect.
Then, as the last good light disappears behind the house tops and the cold of night starts to descend, it’s good to stroll back home and settle in with a long cold beer and a comfortable sofa, after all, there is plenty of stress and struggle to come tomorrow before you can get back to the sanctuary of the soil. Maybe stroll out, if you have one, to the patio at home and take it the beauty of the suburban landscape you have created.
There, the gentle rising warmth of the late evening sun in the garden helps release the scents of the garden, the soft tones of the Evening Primrose and the spice of the Madonna Lilies mingle with hints of summer Jasmine, if the stench of paraffin soaked barbeques hasn’t wafted over the fence. The gentle trickle of water from a fountain playing on the surface of the pond helps to wash away the tensions of the office and the drive home, while a nice cold glass of something will quench the thirst that you share with your plants.
Summer lasts too short a time and, although autumn brings with it the russet shades of leaves and orange and yellows that mimic the bonfires, it will too soon be time to clear away the remains of the salad crops, start digging over the beds and borders and prepare the garden and plot for it's winter sleep. Until then, let's just reveal in the glory that we have.

Easter Funday

2009-04-12T21:01:00.002+01:00

Didn't get much chance to spend a lot of time at the plot this last few days, despite the fact that the time has been available.
It was the weather you see.
I was off work on Thursday, as is my want, as it was my day off. I work in retail therefore working Saturday is a necessity, so a midweek sojourn is the not only the norm, but also a useful chance to visit the plot.
As it was, this being a religious holiday, I chose to take the Friday and Monday off and make a long, if slightly stuttered, weekend of things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bible clutching church going idol botherer but, like most who fill in forms as 'C of E' because they can't commit to atheism, I am happy to take advantage of the proffered sanctioned day of rest. My dedication to Saturday furniture sales meant that I could only take two days off, work one, then take the other two. Well, two days off in lovely sunny weather would have been great but then the weather didn't play along. Thursday was grey becoming wet and grey , Friday wasn't much of an improvement but I managed a couple of hours Thursday and returned after work on Saturday to stand beside a blazing bonfire for three hours. I managed to plant out the healthiest of my sweetcorn plants and the asparagus crowns I'd been given on the Friday between showers.
Sadly amongst the newcomers, there have also been a few casualties. The two butternut plants I raised from seeds saved out of a Tesco squash look to have been slugged nearer to death than the economy. A few of the newly emerged seedlings sown in situ at the plot are also Absent Without Leave. The Kale surprisingly one of the worst sufferers.
I don't mind losing a few plants as I've never been a huge fan of it but I do hate losing a battle with the pests regardless of the crop. I'm not sure which pest it was but I think I know where it came from. The edging boards on the beds are a boon for keeping the soil in and raising the temperature a little but they do provide a handy hiding place. The seedlings nearest those boards are always the ones to succumb first. I need to pay particular attention to trimming back the grass that grows along side and any detritus that gathers at the edges. If I can collect some copper strips or buy copper paste to smear on the top of the boards then it might help deter old Mr Slimy Slug but I need to think of something ridiculously cunning to stop the flea beetle or whatever flying or crawling beastie causing this damage.
Ah well, managed another hour or so at the plot today, Sunday, during which I started to clear a 1 metre square of top grass , which I then covered with the old sprouting stems and topped off with the upturned turves. I plan to build a stack of upturned turves as I clear other parts of the plot left 'fallow' for a little bit too long. The idea is that stacked upturned turf decomposes to become a lovely substance called loam, the basis of soil based compost mixes.
I did it last year on a small scale and, a few bindweed roots aside, it went very successfully. I now plan to recycle my top covering of weeds this way. You see, I wasn't just letting things get a bit untidy, I was secretly planning ahead and growing my loam!
Back at the ranch, the tomato seedlings and baby peppers are healthy enough but don't seem to be moving along very quickly. The slugs have hunted down and wiped out all but one of the butternut plants at home too.
The leeks are not getting any larger so I think it's time for more potting on. I know leeks get transplanted out on the plot eventually but these need to be bigger before they reach their final soil.
Tomorrow I plan to do great things, clear a plot wide stretch to take the maincrop potatoes, use the turf for the loam stack and maybe fill the runner bean trench with manure and compost. As I say, that's what I plan, the weather may decide otherwise.

Googleriffic, or am I twitterfied?

2009-04-06T00:04:00.006+01:00

OK, I've not been on the special sauce and the medication isn't wearing off. The title relates to some new online blogging toys I've recently discovered.You'll notice I now have a twitter feed. That means I can make comments elsewhere and they get fed automatically to the blog, updating in seconds. It's a great way of keeping things lively for anyone reading the blog.
If I spot a new seed variety or find something has happened this morning but doesn't warrant a full blog, I can feed it through from twitter.
Twitter is a way of just making short burst comments in real time.
It makes the reading a little more personal if you like, and hopefully my reader(s) will!
Google has tools which can increase or improve the visibility of your blog to search engines(the things that help people find stuff online), and I applied those today.

O.K.,the technical bit is over and it's time for the dirty finger stuff.
Let's start with some pretty pictures.
The early Broad Beans, which the half broom handle I used as a marker tells me where sown in November '08 are now strapping great plants standing about a foot high (that's 30cm in new money) and the second sowings are starting to break the soil next to the Peas. I want to be able to finish cropping each sowing just before the next is ready, so none get too tough waiting and there isn't a hungry gap between crops. It also means my work colleague who loves them but spends a lot of time abroad, won't miss her bag full again this year!
I mentioned on another site (facebook) that I had emptied my dalek of compost to spread on the beds just the other day. I was almost bowled over by the speed of a comment from my Australian gardening friend,who wanted to know where she could buy a used Dalek for her garden, as she is a huge Doctor Who fan! I had to explain that the name was just a nod towards the odd shaped design and we don't use old tv props as garden furniture or composters. She was a touch disappointed so I told her that you can buy 'new' Daleks built by and for the fans, but I don't think they would be happy to see them filled with old stable manure and kitchen scraps.
I sowed a row of old courgette seed I had saved from one of my very large marrows from last year, looking to get not only a large marrow this year but some good sized but tasty courgettes too. I know that the squash (Cucurbit) family are highly promiscuous but I like to have a gamble and see what turns up. I did before when I grew my first pumpkins and and saved the marrow seeds. The crop from those seeds varied from normal large marrows to a round or pear shaped pot sized marrow hybrid which developed a gourd like hardened skin if left. Odd but fun. If I get a nice shaped and tasty but medium sized marrow then I'll be happy. Too large is no good in the kitchen and the long shape isn't easy to use stuffed as it won't stand on end easily.
No sign of growth from the early potatoes yet but lots of other seed have germinated. I have Turnips and Spring greens, Kale and lettuce up. Excitingly for me, I also have managed to germinate a full row of carrot seed for once.
I have started putting up the supports for some climbing crops, French and Runner beans and ,for a change, climbing squashes. I salvaged some old lattice fence panels from home and tied them together. The three sides are pretty solid and I sowed some seeds underneath and wrapped some net curtain around to make a short term semi cloche affair before the proper intended crops get planted out there. The seeds I sowed came up within a week so the nets gave enough protection from the wind to help.
My tyre stack gave me my first meal of rhubarb this year, a nice if small crumble made from the forced sticks. It's the first real attempt I've made at forcing rhubarb and I am very pleased with the results so I'm afraid I am going to upset some of the other site users and keep a few tyres on the plot for future use.
The autumn sown purple sprouting has been hitting the kitchen for a few days now and I was pleasantly surprised to see the autumn sown Cauli isn't far behind now. I love a nice Cauliflower Cheese and I don't mind if the curds are single serving size as I am looking after my weight now. I'm not sure whether the cheese sauce will be more than an occasional treat though.
Anyway, I know I'll enjoy it. My usual trick of watering the soil minutes before a dark rain cloud appears worked again today but it stayed dry. That spelled success for a friend of mine who asked me to help sort out her walled yard garden. We had just finished putting down some glyphosate weed killer when the skies turned grey and threatening for the second time. Despite my ability to turn into a rainmaker whenever I grasp the handle of a watering can, it kept at bay at least until dark, as I write and that was long enough for the chemical to be absorbed.
The seeds I sowed this last week on the windowsill at home germinated in record speed and are now outside in the mini house that faces south. I don't want them to become all tender and leggy so put them out as soon as they broke the surface. I know that flies against convention but I am willing to risk failure in order to find progress. We are quite protected here and the nights are staying mild so I think I'll be OK.
Judging by the other blogs I read, I am amongst the new breed of gardeners. They who buy seed and plants online, source information via the web and, after spending a day on the plot in the sun, spend the evening blogging the day's events to share with the world. It would seem the garden tool new gardeners want most now isn't a type of hoe or seed drill but a laptop computer.
Good Gardening !

Little green shoots

2009-04-02T16:32:00.002+01:00

Don't panic, I may be involved with the local business groups but I'm not about to get political. The only little green shoots I'm interested in here are those on my fruit trees and bushes. The rhubarb is beyond shoots now, having been shut up in inside a pile of old tyres to force it grow lean and pink and sweet. Forced rhubarb is delicious but you need to rest the plant for a season or two after doing it. We had a nice, small, but nice rhubarb crumble for dessert last week. I can safely say, it's worth the effort!
All you need to do is find a nice mature root of rhubarb that has been growing happily for at least one year. Then , about February or early march, after giving it a good feed and a big pile of stable manure before putting a cover of some sort over the crown. You need a cover such as a pile of four or five car tyres or an old dustbin. The lack of light plus the warmth from the manure makes the new shoots reach up for any small spec of light and lack of light means the stems don't get such a deep red colour like plants grown in open ground do. The lack of chlorophyll means the plant produces more sugars and less starch, giving a less acid taste when cooked.
The rest of the plot has leapt into life with the warmer weather and increasing daylight. The seeds from the last couple of weeks are almost all through the soil now. Carrots , Chard and Turnips are well on the way, Oriental Radish, Kale, Iceberg Lettuce and Spring cabbage are all following along nicely and the Raspberry canes have new shoots at the bases too. The Blackberry has been wound around the old bed frame support since December and now is covered in shoots and fresh leaf, as are the black and red currants.
I still have a large selection of seedlings at home, in and just outside the mini house I keep in our south facing front garden, although two of the Butternut Squash plants have since gone to my Mothers garden and two more have been planted out on the plot.
I only sowed a few seeds of Purple sprouting, Spring Cabbage and Sweet Dumpling only a week or less ago but the brassicas are up already. I think the heat from the south facing windowsill may be too much as they are leggier than I'd like. I may move the propagator to a back room instead.
I won't be sowing anything else this week, at least not until I can prepare more soil but the successional sowing of Broad Beans has come up just as the first sowing is reaching about six inches high. That would fit in nicely with the plan to have a crop of follow on beans just as the first sets are exhausted. On the same note, I have now planted out my second early potato seed, in two trenches to follow on from the first earlies I planted some weeks before. The maincrop will follow in another week or so, depending on the weather and how much time I get on the soil.
It's looking to be a very mild, even hot summer this year, hopefully continuing into the early autumn and extending the season for the later plants such as the squashes to ripen. The main failing point for a lot of first time growers is that they don't ripen the fruits or don't plant early enough to allow ripening. Many will grow the fruits to a good size but then cut them from the vine and try to store them, only to find they rot quickly. Again, ripening is the key. Leaving the fruits in a good sunny spot for a few days while the skins dry and take on a nutty, golden hue is vital if you want to store the squash over winter. There are two main types of squash however, the summer and winter or storing squash and the summer squashes don't keep for long but have a softer skin which can be left on for cooking and eating. Because of this they don't need to be dried and ripened but can be cut and eaten within minutes. If you think of courgettes as summer squash and butternut with their hard skins as winter squash, you will see the difference.
My editor at the local newspaper called me out of the blue last week with a rather unexpected question. Her unusual enquiry involved chiropractics and the spring rush of activity. It would seem that there has been a rash of complaints from people queueing up to see the doctor because they all dashed out at the first sign of good weather and started clearing the garden of rubbish, digging the borders and pruning the hedges. All this enthusiasm is great but what few people remembered is that while the garden was lying dormant and the tools were growing rusty over the winter, your muscles were also out of action and your joints were seizing up. The sudden demands on muscles that haven't been exercised for a couple or more months plays havoc and before long, stiff backs and sore muscles are the order of the day.
My advice was that gardening is like any other exercise and we should all warm up before tackling the task. A few good stretches for the back and legs will help defend you against too many problems when digging and planting. A few warm up bends for the knees and back again before sowing in the soil and before moving heavy pots or bags of compost will be a wise precaution and don't forget to warm up before your start reaching out with the shears or hedge clippers.
A little preparation such as we do with seed beds and planting holes, is never time wasted in the long term. Prepare your body and you'll enjoy the gardening after you finish as well as during the work!

Sweet, sweet Dumplings

2009-03-26T11:06:00.003Z

Sweet Dumpling is a squash, a member of the same family as Marrows and Pumpkins but is a much smaller, more manageable sized fruit. It's size is one of the reasons why I will be trying it out this season alongside my usual Butternut squash and courgettes. I've been growing pumpkins for a number of years but in reality, unless you pinch out and grow on a large number of fruits, they are inclined to grow to massive fruits. Impressive but few in number and not entirely practical for the kitchen!
Sweet Dumpling claim to be croppable at a more useful size, 1 fruit per person and therefore quicker to cook with less waste. I have no clue to the flavour, but most squash I have grown and eaten tend to have a mild but distinct flavour. The mildest being Marrows which,like all cucurbit, lose flavour if grown too large. Many people claim Marrow to be watery but that tends to be partly due to choosing an over size fruit and cooking it unimaginatively. Butternut is a great flavour, making a wonderful soup as well as a good side vegetable or a very different chip!
I have already sown a half dozen seeds in a seed bed at the plot as the pack directions say you can from March onwards but I am also sowing some in a partitioned tray on the windowsill at home to be safe. If both come up, then I will have a succession of plants! I have no idea how many fruits to expect from each plant so I will try for maybe three plants, then a following two planted out later. That way, I have back up if I have failures and also plenty to share with friends if success overwhelms!
The earlier sowings of Tomato and Sweet Pepper have been pricked out into individual plugs , still under cover of the mini house, and are doing well. The supermarket Butternut are in three inch diameter pots now and romping away outdoors day and night. If the weather holds well for the weekend, I will risk a couple of plants at the plot. I have erected a makeshift pyramid of discarded garden trellis which I will be growing several climbing crops up, but the one I am most anticipating is trying one of the squashes as a climber. They naturally throw out tendrils and can strangle any unfortunate stems that they cross when grown horizontally. I have seen the large 'Jack O'Lantern' type pumpkins grown on a pergola before so my little Dumplings or Butternuts shouldn't present any problems. I am using strong fencing trellis rather than the fold up thin stuff so weight isn't an issue.
Back on the plot, the Iceberg lettuce 'Saladin' has germinated very well and very quickly, having been sown last week. People claim Radish is a great starter for children due to the speed of germination but I'd put these lettuce seeds ahead in a race!

Make mine a '99

2009-03-21T22:59:00.002Z

It's been a glorious week, the spring sun has been warming the soil,the rain has stayed away and the wind hasn't been so bad either.
Oh, just for the record, I've been on holiday this week, using up the last few days of my entitlement before the end of the financial year. Not that I'm gloating or anything. No, really.
So I've been spending a few hours a day at the plot, with the exception of Thursday due to other commitments. I've sowed, weeded,watered and hoed. I've dug ,forked, sawn and hammered.
Into this mix, add several coffees, several hours of radio broadcasts and a few good chats and you can see my time hasn't been wasted!
Today, I sowed a few rows of catch crops and things that would need transplanting, like Spring Cabbage Greyhound and Cauliflower All Year Round. I have been guilty in the past of avoiding growing anything that needs a long growing season but , after too many springs with nothing in the ground until June, I am in for the long haul this time. I still have some Cauli's and Purple Sprouting in the soil from last year and I am due to sow the seed for next year's Sprouting Broccoli tomorrow. It still seems a huge waste of resources to utilise all that soil for such a duration in order to have just the one crop. I like to get my money's worth out of the soil, cropping and resowing and catch cropping in between so one crop over a period of 10-14 months really hurts. The benefit is ,of course, the fact that you can harvest something for your kitchen in each of the twelve months, even if it may only be Kale or Turnips some weeks.
The past few days have been very summer like , with even a regular return of the season sound of the off key, wobbling wail of the Ice Cream Van heard in some streets. If anyone is buying, I'll have a '99 with raspberry sauce please. I'm sure , if the balmy weather lasts to the next weekend, we will soon be smelling the burnt offerings of the early BBQ grills too, but the simple fact is, it is spring and we can still experience a frost right up to the end of May. This of course plays into the hands of the doom merchants, who will bemoan the fact that 'Summer is over now' as soon as the grey skies return, however briefly.
Onwards and upwards.
My list of seeds sown this last week includes, the cauli and spring cabbage as mentioned,plus a couple of rows of Turnip 'Snowball', Iceberg lettuce 'Saladin',Parsley 'Plain Leaf' and more onion sets, Sturon variety. The French bean seeds saved from last year's Blue Lake crop have been in the soil since January and have shown no sign of life so I will be making some sowings in pots at home for planting out later as replacements. The early onion and shallot sets have all shown new growth as have the early peas 'Feltham Early' , but the later broad beans are lying dormant still. I have to decide whether or not to try again or to stick with the early rows that are about 4"high and very healthy. I'd prefer a succession rather than an early but unique treat. It may be down to pots in the mini greenhouse with those too.
On the subject of the mini greenhouse, I have been utilising it to rear my sweetcorn, tomatoes,sweet peppers, leeks and butternut squash. I started them all in segmented trays on the sunniest windowsill and started moving them out into the greenhouse during the day, once the seedlings were up and well established. I have since potted on my squash plants and now leave them outside all day and night, although the trays still remain in the mini house. They have been outside for three nights now and show no sign of suffering.
I found a packet of Sweet Dumpling squash seed during a shopping trip this week so have sown half a dozen seeds on the plot directly in the soil and will match them with the same in pots in the mini house at home. I've always wanted to try this type of small squash in the past so grabbed the packet on sight and rushed for the tills. I find myself searching through seed racks in more and more supermarkets and DIY stores now than ever before and this can only reflect the rise in the number of people turning to home grown foods.
I cant help but feel, partly due to my involvement in the local business world, that the economic situation is going to get much worse before we see any improvement and that the price of foods, fresh foods, will become more difficult to afford. This may, hopefully, lead to more choosing to turn to the soil and produce their own food for the table rather than buying in. Any thing we can produce that will reduce the outgoing costs of raising and feeding a family must be encouraged. There will be many bills that can only be met by conventional means, such as mortgage and heating , but food bills can be curbed and not at the cost of quality but to the benefit of it.
All that remains to be seen is where these people will tend those crops, whether our well fed council will eventually find plots for those who want them, or not as it appears so far.
My hope is they will, my fear, and to be honest firm belief, is that they will find excuses not to.

Progress at windowsill level.

2009-03-14T22:23:00.007Z

It's all guns firing on the windowsill nursery right now.Squash seedlings at first true leaf stage so can be potted on. Toms are also at true leaf but can stay where they are for longer as they are much smaller and will survive happily for a little longer. Leek seedlings are at the crook stage, where the top of the seedling is bent over like the top of a safety pin. I thin they get potted on now too, so they can grow on and avoid crowding. Sweet peppers are like the toms, ok for a while. Sweetcorn doesn't have a true leaf stage as it is, like all grass family members, a monocot plant. his means it produces one leaf on alternative sides, from the stem rather than a balanced pair of leaves as the biocots do. Take a look at any grass or corn type plant, and you'll see.

The corn may need potting on eventually but I can wait for that a while longer, the urgent one is the squash, due to it's size relative to the seed tray. It doesn't take long to fill it's space with roots. I sowed my seeds in compartmental trays this time, sets of six per half tray. Meaning I can separate them all easily later, like when I pot on the squash!

Today was a glorious spring day so I spent it on the plot planting new potatoes. Variety Rocket. I put them in the bed that I covered in compost from the old dalek bin last week. Drew out a trench with a dutch hoe and loosened up the soil so I could plant about 12" down. Covered the newly placed seed spuds with some straw and then a layer of soil. As the new shoots come through, I will draw down some of the soil I removed to make the trench.

The broad beans are doing well, sown in the autumn and now about four inches high and stocky.

The carrots are showing some some possible signs of activity already, just a week after sowing.Had a very good chat with my good neighbour Len, about technology and rugby.Strimmed around a few of the beds with the battery powered rechargeable I use. Prefer to use rechargeable rather than petrol as I think it's just better for the environment. Misguided or just totally lost it may be but I have my preferences.

Then onto the first real crop of the year, the purple sprouting broccoli. Cropped a big handful today and it look great, can't wait to taste it in one of the wife's stir fries.

On a sour note, I collected a couple of old tyres to use as a forcing jar extension for my rhubarb, as many others on my site are doing, when an old jobsworth in a boiler suit decided to inform me that 'we are going to ban them completely' on all sites. This was due to the problems encountered with one hardened trouble maker who had amassed a collection and had refused to remove them from her plot.Yes, her plot. The very hardened adversary was a disabled pensioner. Rather than tackle this feisty foe, the brave members of the committee has decided they will enforce a blanket ban on recycling old rubber car tyres. Oddly, I feel recycling anything for use on a plot is part and parcel of allotmenteering. My old grandfather used to find a use for almost everything and would fashion containers out of the most unassuming things. My own father made garden planters out of used tyres turned inside out. I had originally had a plan to use more tyres to make something my Australian friend had told me about, Tyre Swans.Tyres and similar things are the life blood of allotments, or should be, along with old window frames as cold frames, floorboards for edging beds and net curtains protecting crops from butterflies.

OK, maybe we are due for a change and the committee should do something with the money they make from subs but how about doing something positive and helpful rather than laying down rules?

Just a quickie.

2009-03-06T22:52:00.002Z

I'm popping a quick message in to help support a local green issues event.

It's always worth giving these things a chance, you never know when you might learn something to your advantage.

Meanwhile, back at home, my windowsill seed trays have started sprouting tomato,leek,pepper,sweetcorn and squash seedlings.

Seed potatoes have been set in egg cartons to chit and I am researching vermiculture!

The second cutting

2009-03-01T20:45:00.007Z

It's here!

The new lawn mower has arrived! Well, I say arrived, I went and collected it,along with my mother in law who bought it for me, from the local Homebase. It's a four wheeled beast, all in plastic green and black, with height adjustment and a collection box. I know it's not a mighty shiny red Mountfield or some such prestigious marque but it is a fine machine and it does the job pretty well.

It was a bit of a welcome jigsaw puzzle to make but not as bad as some flat pack furniture I've known!

It did a good,not too noisy job of cutting down the front lawn, which, as you will know, has been uncut for a few weeks now.

I found myself with all the enthusiasm of a car fan driving his newest purchase. I must have been in the watery winter sun too long! So I've posted the obligatory pictures, one Top Gear shot included.

In the garden itself, other than ranting about my neighbours disgusting landfill site of a plot, I have been busy with a spring tidy up. I've cleared the space around the Bamboo and stripped the lower leaves. This gives it a better appearance and ,along with thinning out some straggling shoots, allows for more clean air to circulate around the new growth and keep disease at bay. It may seem odd to savage a good plant like this but remember, in the wild, the native animals would be doing this.

The rambling rose is shooting now after I pruned it before the frosts, the Hebes are starting to flower, although they never seem to stop flowering in my garden. The bulbs are poking their tips through the dark soil as if they are miners reaching for the sun after a winter below ground.

Indoors, I sowed some seeds for an early start in sectioned trays of number 2 John Innes compost. Tomatoes,Leeks,Sweet Peppers and Sweet Corn. I also sowed some seeds from a fresh Butternut squash my wife had made soup from. She dried the seed in a paper towel, placed in a warm place then I sowed them like any packet seed. Much to my surprise, they germinated like weeds within three days on the windowsill under a cloche cover.

On the plot, where I like to spend most of my gardening time, I have finished another couple of raised beds, stacked up more stable manure for rotting down and spread some of last years compost on one of the beds. I collected my seed potatoes from the Trading Hut on site and will start the earlies off chitting soon.

I picked up some onion sets over the winter and planted them and some shallots out last month. I can see signs of growth on them already, despite the snow.

Today, I sowed early peas, a second sowing of broad beans and two rows of carrots. I filled half a row with the remaining mooli seeds from last year. I won't need a great amount of them. Hot radishes the size and shape of large main crop carrots go along way!

I sowed one of my favourite looking veg too, Spinach Beet.

It looks like a large rhubarb leaf, is related to the beetroot family and can be cooked like spinach without shrinking, or the stems can be eaten like cooked celery. When very young, the leaves are added to salad leaf mixes.

Lunchtime came too soon today and I left in a rush but I will be trying to make use of every minute of day light from now on.

Fence peering

2009-02-27T00:00:00.009Z

It's about time we started looking at that thing that runs around the garden.No, not the rabbit/dog/goat or whatever but the fence.

It may be new and fresh and smelling faintly of a car air freshener or it may be old and drier than an aged nun but more importantly it surrounds your precious little piece of earth.

More than that, it separates your bit of soil from the next.

That's what I am talking about today. The mighty, landscaped oasis that you overlook every time you raise your head above that wooden boundary of yours.

It saddens me to say it, but the odds are that, unless you live in a road or street that competes in the local stages of Britain in bloom, you will be surrounded by a wild and overgrown dumping ground, scattered artistically with old car tyres and twenty feet tall brambles, or, alternatively, a gravel desert interspersed with brick paths.

It is beyond me how, when the whole financial world is hurtling towards hell in a tinder dry wooden hand basket,people think they can sell a house with a garden that requires a native guide to navigate.

Try as we might to install some degree of civic pride in our lives, to maybe make this sceptred Isle a destination for the spending masses, we still haven't grasped the concept of a visually enticing front approach.

I spend, at most, one hour each fortnight cutting the lawn, pruning shrubs or weeding and I manage to limit the level of horror my front garden causes to passers by. What estate agents (those now extinct creatures) once phrased as 'kerb appeal' has been translated as, at best, a miniature NCP for two or, at worst, an overflow from the municipal recycling site (dump in old English).

Would it be too much to expect our civil servants to step out of their tax bought warm cars and , with clipboard firmly grasped twixt finger and thumb, make a note of those wrecks and report them?

Would a flood tax levied on all paved over gardens deter the breeding grounds for Chelsea Tractors?

Let's think laterally for a moment: We don't have enough plots of land for new allotments (we do, however , have the greatest population of rare newts in Europe, apparently)so why don't we commandeer the neglected front or rear gardens and hand them over to the waiting wanna be allotmenteers?

OK, let's just make it a little easier for the hard of thinking ensconced in the once Ivory now grubby grey towers of power. Charge more council tax to those who don't respect the property they have been fortunate enough to be allowed to live in. There people in third world countries who wash down their front steps and plant flowers on the dust to show how proud they are of their hovel, but we in the wealthy(by comparison) west treat our acreage worse than our toilets.

Go out,look, speak to your neighbour, they may be ill, working long shifts or just unable to cope.

They may just be completely unaware that you have a problem with the view they are presenting, some may even welcome your advice and help.

If, however, they don't, if they suggest you leave in a sexual fashion and mind your own business, why not remind your local councillor just who voted them in and who pays their wages?

I fought the lawn and the lawn won...

2009-01-29T12:06:00.002Z

Yes, it's a bad pun but it's true, I tried to get a first cut in on the front lawn last week. We'd had a few dry days and the grass was getting a bit feral after a warm but wet autumn so , after a few weeks of nagging to have a look at it, I dragged the old mower out of the shed.
It was bought when Focus still traded in Weston, so that dates it, and is/was a small model as we have small lawns. A blue hover mower with plastic hook shaped blades. It had served us well with regular work throughout most of the year due to our mild climate but , alas, will serve no more.
It needed 'looking at' because the trip switch handle was a bit temperamental. As with most plastics, the handle had bent a bit and therefore wasn't tripping the safety device unless you really gripped it with grim determination until the blood stopped getting to your fingers!
I took the handle apart, adjusted a few things and reassembled it all successfully. Test drives proved it was capable of returning to service so I set off for the front garden.
I managed to cut the outer edge of my sort of circular lawn and all was going a treat until the blades hit some kind of stony projection. Now, over the years I've run over my share of small stones and chipping to no real concern. The benefit of replaceable plastic blades is precisely that, they are replaceable, and have been changed several times. This time however, I wasn't so fortunate.
There was an almighty bang, a whirring, squidgy sound as the broken rotor dug into the soft soil and a wisp of mist as the moist grass met the hot motor. After switching off the power supply, I took a closer look at the aftermath. The plastic blade had resisted parting from the mount and instead had taken a piece of the main plastic motor bed off with it, sending the combined lump through the cowling cover and across the garden some twenty feet before coming to a stop against the garden fencing.
As a result, I now have a semi cut lawn, shaped like a horseshoe with a long clump of green in the centre. Maybe that's a lucky sign?
All I know is I now need a new mower,but if I have to buy one I am going to look at buying a wheeled petrol driven model, so I can adjust the cut height and use it away from a power supply, such as at my plot, cutting the paths.
I say IF I have to buy one as I am a keen supporter of recycling sites such as free cycle but I have yet to find anyone offering a lawn mower, neither have I had any responses to my wanted request!
Ah well, maybe I should take a trip out to the local garden centres instead after all.

The rain. rain, rain came down. down, down..

2009-01-23T20:30:00.002Z

So, the ice thawed and the rain followed. Nature’s good like that. Send a little extra water to wash away the cold. Unfortunately there was no real spell between the two to help drain any of that iced water away before the rain followed. As a result, our usually clay bound, slow to drain soil to a big hit. Flooding returned as it has for the last few years and covered parts of the plot. I don’t have much of a slope on the plot but one side does suffer worse than the other.
Another job to put on the long term list: Raise soil levels on the left side.
Never mind, the side that wasn’t a boggy duck pond also has some of the recently installed raised beds. As a result, those beds drain easier and warm up quicker, especially if you’ve had them covered with black polythene since November. I managed to walk to the plot without getting soaked by the threatening storm on Thursday morning, taking with me a bag of shredded paper and all the packets of free seeds I’d accumulated over the year or more of subscribing to a weekly gardening magazine.
We’d purchased some onion sets and shallot bulbs from Wilkinson’s last week so I carried them to the shed too, just o my wife doesn’t hide them away somewhere sensible, and therefore lost to me, at home. I’d reckoned on not seeing the plot for the rest of the week at that point but the rest of the morning stayed dry and the afternoon got better so I chanced my arm and drove back to the plot where the covered beds were found to be quite friable and ready for planting up. I set out three short rows of Sturon sets and a matching three rows of saved seed from last season’s French bean Blue Lake. Only small amount meant that , should they grow, I would have an early crop for successional sowing to follow but, should they perish and die, I would only lose a manageable amount and not a whole bed.
As it turned out, I stayed for about three hours in the end , until the light began to fade dangerously, as I was sawing wood to fit more raised beds and a sharpish blade in poor light doesn’t usually mean good things for me.
I noticed some activity from one of the other plots whilst I was there and it looked like a new plot holder so maybe some new faces will start appearing with the spring. Last time I asked, the waiting list was above 25 people long , so either someone has given up or they have been cast off for a misdemeanour to ghastly to consider!
I understand the minimum amount of people requesting access to allotments to force action from a local council is 6, so 25 would mean they have to at least look at providing new plots somewhere. As housing has slowed to a halt due to the recession and growing our own is now more about economy than health or political preference, the council would be hard pressed to publically refuse such a suggestion surely?
Perhaps the allotments association should be looking into this?

Christmas on the plot

2008-12-24T21:27:00.002Z

Well, it's been an eventful year if nothing else.
It was very much like the girl with the curl, when it was bad it was very bad but when it was good, well, runner beans all round!
The experiments went well but the results were never predictable. The Three Sisters grew and were harvested but nowhere near in the way or to the extent that could have been forseen.
The melon lasted less than the time it took to prepare the soil and the donkey based manure failed to create as much interest as the Grand Pier.
On the plus side, the weather wasn't as bad as previously seen with less flooding,more sunshine and less drought. Only in this country can we experience both in a twelve month period.
Disease and pestilence were rife again, with the dreaded blight making a mark for the second year and Onion White Rot/Soft Shoulder hitting all the Allium family, including Shallots and Leeks. Those who grew potatoes found varying results, mainly depending on the variety of seed used.
There should always be a silver lining to these things and from this we can learn one thing: Choosing the correct variety can help defeat the ravages of the dreaded virus!
The future itself looks rosier with the uptake of allotment plots across the country continuing to rise and even the development of allotment associations growing. There is apparently even an association in Derby who are still looking for their first plot!
The green movement certainly helped but even those politically opposed to anything environmental will find the financial benefits of growing your own a bit difficult to ignore so expect the demand to grow even further.
It may be time to remind those still waiting that if a number of people gather and request more plots to be made available, the local authority is obliged to provide them with such plots.
The community spirit of my local site thrived this year, with the building of several sheds and compost bins with recycled wood donated by Somerset Wood Recycling. Several loads of stable manure of varying quality continue to arrive for free collection and are heartily cleared.
The two notice boards were full of interesting and relevant information although they were sadly not as often updated as they could have been but they are atleast udpated. I hasten to add this as this very blog hasn't really been as active as I would have liked either!
Meanwhile, as the sun has disappeared over the Gasometers for the last time this side of the 25th , I will take my spade back to the shed and settle down for another mince pie and a glass of homemade wine and wish you all a Happy Christmas and a successful New Year!

Arthur's/Trigger's shed.

2008-10-12T20:13:00.000+01:00

The tale of Arthur’s shed
(Or Trigger’s broom part 2)
There is a feeling in the air, a sense of something good developing, growing and spreading on the site and I don’t just mean Ted’s compost heap mountain. For a while, since the improvements in site security, (can there be improvement to something that wasn’t there before?)There has been a steady growth in wooden cladding. Not house cladding or shed cladding but real wood; ok pallets are real wood, on compost bins. Sheds are being fixed, lean to shelters constructed and such activity.
Now, Iknow one lady who has been a site plot holder for longer than either of us care to remember was asking a few days ago if I knew of anyone looking to dispose of a shed. Any size or condition would suffice, she just needed a shed as winter would be upon us soon and she needed to keep things on site rather than carry them to and from the plot every visit. I thought long and hard, well, maybe short and hard as I was on my way to my plot carrying too much, and I couldn’t think of anyone so suggested she look on freecycle.
Nothing more happened on the subject until my next trip to Clarkes Field. I was busy burying weeds and my thoughts when I was rudely disturbed from my day dream by a heavy thumping some distance away. I staggered to my feet, having spent too long on my knees as usual, and looked up to discover one of my fellow soil worriers belting hell out of the side of a shed, a shed now on the lady’s plot. There was a shed where there once wasn’t, put there kindly by a couple of the other gardeners.
It later transpired that the said shed was one of the oldest on the site, having been signposted for demolition and disposal by Arthur recently but saved by the salvaging couple. As I was visiting at the weekend, the new proud owner was coating it in a nice inoffensive shade of illusive green and the builder was proudly watching on. As we discussed the new unit he explained the history of the building.
Apparently, it had been Arthur’s, but it had been passed from plot to plot, owner to owner having incurred several repairs and no doubt total rebuilds for many years. As the charitable chap put it, he only needed to fix a new roof and some new side panel plus a door and it was perfectly useable again...
Trigger’s fabled everlasting broom sprung to mind. Since all this eternal shed ever needed was one part or another replacing, it too may well become as famous in time.

The Good , the Bad and The Runners up.

2008-09-14T19:33:00.009+01:00

So, I'm starting to clear up from this season and look towards next year. Yes, I know we can grow crops through the winter but in reality it means artificial means or just leaving something in the ground that won't rot or run to seed. I have no desire to chew the leaves of something that farmers can't force cattle to eat in winter so I rule out the so named winter salad crops. Oriental radish is great but, let's be straight here, how much radish can you eat?

As popular as they may be in the Northern parts of Scotland, turnip leaves do not thrill me. With the greatest respect to Scotland's legendary chefs(OK, that's Gordon Ramsey and.....?), deep fried pizza is popular up there too but I'm not about to recommend it either.

So, back to the point, I am planning next year and clearing away the remains of this years crops.

The beans have been cut off at the root, the old cabbage stumps lifted and crushed and the strawberry foliage has been sheared back. The sweetcorn failures are now crushed and composted and the marigolds are all a distant memory.

It's time to give the grass a good cut and to tickle over the top of the soil to expose grubs and bugs for the ravenous birds to devour. The best solution to next spring's pests is to make them this years bird food. The only birds I won't encourage are pigeons. Nets over late greens will keep them at bay and keep your leaves in better shape than the net curtains at home but it also means the other birds can't get to the caterpillars and shield beetles so remember to uncover those caulis and spring cabbages for a spell while you tend to a distant part of the plot.

As the beans are past their best and beginning to get to tough for the kitchen, I have selected my best looking pods for next years seed crop. I have taken up the practice of selection over the last few years but still grow purchased seed so I can compare results and decide if self selection brings any weakness in disease or pest resistance. It also means I will eventually have a crop in perfect harmony with my own very locally specific conditions. This is my third year and I started with 'Lady Diana' as the original donor seed. This year, the seed I had selected and saved was sown in exactly the same compost and at the same time as the packet seed,still Lady Diana to remain consistent.

The saved seed germinated earlier and more strongly than the commercial seed. The plants were plated out in the same spot on opposite sides of the same trench and the saved seed plants were larger and got away earlier. Overall, both sides gave good crops but there were some very oddly deformed pods amongst them and some early casualties falling to what looked to be pest damage. I have again selected the best from both sides so I'll be keen to see how the crops look next season. I select using a number of specifications; Health, size, straightness and smooth skins with no sign of seed or stringiness.

This way, I only get good healthy plants and not long pods riddled with viruses. I provide the same sort of conditions; Trench filled with compost and manure, bamboo supports and plenty of water. Every year they are moved to a new part of the plot to avoid a build up of soil borne problems but both crops, are grown together.

I'll report back on my results but so far, I think the special selection has the lead.

It's time for a few hard decisions and home truths too. I know I can enjoy growing certain plants, vegetable fruit or flowers, but I am coming to the conclusion that I can either grow for my own pleasure and end up giving , or worse, throwing away most of my results or I can restrict myself to growing whatI can use. If my family and friends don't eat or use what I grow, should I grow it or is that wasteful?

Alternativey, am I a farmer or a gardener? A provider or enthusiast?

In the end I will hopefully decide to continue growing and enjoying what I grow but whether I will still seek out new types of foods and plants or just try and refine the varieties.

I know this much already; I am not a great writer and my opinions are just that, mine, and they bear no difference to what others choose to do or how they see things but I enjoy writing and I will always write. With the existence of blogging online there is no problem of wasted materials or out of date product so the blogging remains. The content however, well, times and topics change as the seasons and the weather does.

Going around

2008-08-23T19:40:00.000+01:00

They say things go round in cycles.
What goes around comes around and if you stand and wait long enough, flares will be fashionable again.
Well, I don't know who ' they ' are or why they like cycling in flares, considering the risks of chain and denim incidents, but it would appear to be correct. We are entering that phase when gardening, more accurately growing your own food, is going to become popular again. Not just popular, but an essential part of housekeeping. Our forefathers saw keeping a supply of fresh produce on the table as important as secure doors and windows or a clean shirt for work.
With the impending recession becoming more and more unavoidable , those who shun the soil for the supermarket will be seen as wasteful and foolish. The old dig for victory type of government leaflets , albeit updated and available on cd and download, will resurface.
Garden programmes have always been popular but the swing from decorative flowers to filling vegetables is becoming more evident. Sections featuring alloments have become regular items instead of one off specials.
Flowers still make up a major,if not the major part of a garden wishlist,second only to a lawn for the children to play on, but more and more home buyers are looking at somewhere to grow food too. Sadly the terrible blight of garden grabbing is creeping across the country,buying up the spare patch of land that could be a veg plot,small orchard or play area and building a two up two down with no garden instead. More and more of these back garden estates are popping up. Hopefully, the decline in the housing market will bring a slow down in this horrendous practice too. It's already an accepted fact that a well presented garden can add an extra five percent to the selling price of a house. Maybe soon we will see 'well kept vegetable and fruit plot' added to the agents description!

Harvest

2008-08-23T19:36:00.000+01:00

The summer has had its share of critics again this year, mainly due to the short periods of sun before the rains came to spoil the sunbathers fun. For the gardener, it has been almost perfect though.
Prolonged dry hot weather puts a strain on the roots of established plants and can kill off tiny seedlings. Drying winds can scorch leaves and blow away light soils. Heavy rain for too long can wash out nutrients and damage soil structure, cause roots to rot and fruits to bloat and split.
What we soil toilers look for is steady rain, straight down not diagonal with the wind, preferably overnight followed by sun mid morning to late evening.
One day of continued rain in a week of warm, not scorching sun, would also fit the bill. Just make sure the rain comes on a work day!
That routine of regular warmth and light mixed with watering is to plants what regular three meals a day are to us. Famine and feast is not healthy for either subject.
As a result, my runner beans have been prolific and tender and made my friends who don't grow very attentive.
My courgettes are cropping daily and the french climbing beans are surprisingly good. Sadly, the rain favours the old enemy too. Slugs have put paid to most of my second sowing lettuce and made interesting shapes from my radishes.
Intriguingly, my larger Oriental radish have been largely ignored by pests. The harsh prickly leaves don't tempt the mollusc mouth or the flying lace makers. The white roots are not on their menu either. Now, with the supermarkets charging 79p per root for Mooli and almost £2 for a pound of rather tough looking runners, I'm finding that from the plot to the plate, every little helps as someone said somewhere...
Now, with all this talk of runners and things oriental, we will soon see the Beijing Olympics monopolising our screens. One historical benefit of foreign travel has been the introduction of new species to our gardens. Why not have your own international conference and look at the latin names of plants growing in and around your garden. Any thing bearing Chinensis or Orientalis has been named after the place it was discovered, China.
Maybe sow some oriental vegetables. The climate right now is perfect and matches sowing conditions found across Asia at sowing time. Oriental Cabbage, Pak-Choi and Mizuna leaves are all as easy to grow as lettuce but watch out for our native pests, they like a take away as much as anyone!

Feelin' hot hot hot!

2008-06-30T21:05:00.002+01:00

Oohhhh, isn't it warm?
The sun is out and the sky is azure blue. Time to roll up the sleeves, pull on the shorts and catch some rays will we weed and seed.
Ok. Stop right there.
We're very good at preaching safety in this country, some say to the point of absurdity but i will give great creedence to the advice we get regarding the strength of the sun. I come from a background of rolled up sleeves and dirty fingernails. My father was a very succesfull electrician but hated being restricted to an office when he was promoted. If he wasn't getting his hands dirty, he didn't feel justified in taking the pay. It didn't stop him taking the pay, he just felt more like he'd earned it if he'd rolled up his sleeves and prodded something.
Now I follow in that in some ways, stop laughing at the back, but I can still enjoy working in an office or getting stuck in on the shopfloor.
The problem with that, I discovered this week, is that the sun is not discerning about those it hurts. We've all seen, even had, those farmer's tans. The bronze brown mix that looks like a good coating of creasote has been applied to our forearms. The type of tan our mothers called 'weathered'.
That leathery look may give the impression we are weather proofed but it hides a multitude of things. The worst being what I am now awaiting a hospital appointment to investigate.
Yes, skin cancer can hit even the hardiest of gardeners. No amount of outdoor experiene can protect you, you an't develop an immunity, it respects no race or age.
We've seen the adverts and the lealfets advising mothers to cover up children and we've seen little troops of schoolkids trotting off to school in those desert caps with the neck shades but we are just as much at risk as they are.
So, where sleeves, cover your head regardless of how much hair you have, remember your neck and the base of your spine will be exposed as you bend over the plot.
Slap on some sunblock, slip on a shirt and slop on a hat.
Ok, on with the show.
The new potatoes were a mixed result. The first row I dug was very productive, giving me a good crop of nice duck egg sized Rocket tubers. The second was a little less charitable, despite being harveted a good fortnight later. The third row, last planted and harvested, was a wash out. I barely gathered as many tubers as I planted.
The Desiree maincrops look very healthy so far so I hope to make up the deficit later in the season.
The radish did well and I've sown a third crop this week. I also have some Mooli oriental radish coming along nicely. Again, a successional sowing was made this week. We've been enjoying the lettue 'All Year Round' for a few weeks now. Again, more sown and a few late plants put out.
The much anticipated runner beans are starting to form beans now, so I've been chucking buckets of water on twice daily to keep them tender.
The last of the early peas are being collected now and the ground that the broad beans were in has been cleared and I'm contemplating what I should follow them with. I have some brassica plants to transplant so they may go in there.
The sweet peas, oh the lovely sweet peas!
I've been cutting blooms for a couple of weeks now and the system i use to grow them has proven a winner again. I cordon grow them. This means one stem only per plant, tied in to a cane for support and anything that takes from the plants strength, such as tendrils or side shoots, is removed. The result is longer stems, larger blooms and a longer cropping/picking period. It's a system I came across when I tried to grow for show a few years back.
The best part of the week was finaly finding my Blackberries are ready to pick. My wife loves Balckberrying and we often take long autumn evening walks with small punnets to gather a hedgerow harvest. This year, the best crop will be from my plot. My Black Butte variety has the largest fruits of any variety, over 2 inches in length each. I can happily report that the size doesn't affect the sweet juicy flavour either!

Summer dreaming

2008-06-23T19:14:00.004+01:00

It's here. It's official too. The summer solstice has passed so the nights will get closer but until it gets noticeable, I'm spending my evenings down on the plot when possible. It's this time of year when I can easily pop down for an hour and not come home until dusk.

This sunday I drove down at about 11 o'clock, not early I know but it was sunday, and I eventually floated home immune to any of life's worries just after 3 pm. If I had taken some sandwiches with me I may well have stayed until dark but as I hadn't I couldn't ignore my stomach and left to fill it. Fresh gooseberries and all the lettuce I could eat wasn't enough.

The plot itself is looking good. The broad beans have finished, thankfully as I was beginning to get sick of the sight of them. The first row of new potatoes has been emptied so I have some fresh soil to start sowing again.

I can still get some carrots in and I'm determined to give them another go despite the soil being clay and a little lumpy. I may try some late parsnips and I have some calabrese seedlings to transplant. I will off course sow more salad crops, radish and lettuce and some beetroot for christmas pickles.

I lifted my shallots as a couple had gone to seed. I don't know why but my soil is rubbish for Alliums. My red onion sets all went to seed again this year. Last year both red and white went to seed. Now my shallots are putting up the pointy stem. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for my garlic and I'm not growing leeks.

With each failure comes the chance for success. Although my onions have disappointed by going to seed, the radishes I left in the ground have thrown up the most delicious seed pods. I know the germans like to crunch on radish pods with their beers so I tried to grow some a few years back. They are only the common french breakfast variety, not the specific german beirkellar types but they are lovely and crunchy when added to a salad or, as our german friends do, eaten as a bar snack.

I believe, although I've not tried, you can eat marigold flowers too. I have some to attract hoverflies and other friendly insects but I don't eat them. I do eat lackerries though and mine are looking great already. They are just starting to colour up now and as I grow the largest fruiting variety, Black Butte, I am in for a good harvest. Each fruit is already longer than any other I've seen.

The Tayberry is cropping for the first time. Not huge amounts but promising for coming seasons.

I am glad I haven't grown tomatoes this season. Last year the site was hit y Blight, a terrible airborn disease spread by spores and brought on by damp and humid weather conditions. The flooding in mid summer last year was ideal for it. This year looks like it could follow suit.

I hope it waits until we've all got our potatoes out of the ground.

It's twisting my Melon man.

2008-05-26T22:07:00.002+01:00

It's time for an update from the muddy, weed infested slug farm that is the plot.
I had big ideas about growing a melon outdoors on the plot and looked back in time for clues as to how I should go about it.
Now, for gardening's boom time we need to pop back to the Victorians really, when gardens were part food supply and part status symbol. The bigger and more extreme your gardens, the better off you were to your peers. Anyone who didn't serve pineapple at dinner parties was a failure.
Those exotic fruits had to be grown on site too as their was no way of preserving and transporting the from the empire then.
The people i charge of the gardens were geniuses when it came to recreating the growing conditions necessary for the more delicate plants and would use all sorts of weird and inventive methods to create the hot humid atmosphere that melons, pineapples and citrus fruits required.
One such trick was using the heat generated from fresh stable manure as it rotted to provide bottom heat for the plants and trapping that heat and moisture with elaborate glass cloches.
All architecture the Victorians produced, even down to mundane work day frames and such were elaborately decorated and usually quite heavy as they had a fondness for cast iron and lead!
I decided to use and adapt the method, known as a hotbed, to try and grow my melon. The plant had been an impulse buy during a trip to a local outlet and so I used a stack of turves I had recently created and covered it with not fresh but still hot donkey manure. I covered the heap with heat retaining black polythene and planted through a small slit in the top.To replace the ornate glass cloche, I resorted to a large water bottle with the base removed. In the side of the heap I inserted a small squash bottle with the end cut off to provide water to the roots later. This is something I o with heavy feeders or thirsty plants as it means the water is less likely to evaporate before it reaches the roots. I'm not sure if the Victorian gardeners did this but I guess it can only help.
The good news is that there hs been some interest in what at first sight resembles a lunar landing craft, the bad news is copious amounts of slug pellets and vigilance hasn't thwarted the dreaded slug and the main leaves and most of the growing point has been eaten.
There's a slim chance it may still survive but I am not holding out too much hope. I will give it tim to see if there is any sign of recovery, as I almost threw out some sunflower seedlings for the same reason and my wife persuaded me to let her have them.
They are putting on great growth in a pot in her garden at home.
Seems I'm not the only green fingered one!

Beans means more.

2008-04-22T10:42:00.002+01:00

I am managing to spend more time outside now as the daylight leans back and stretches its arms. The showers mean a shed with a few gardening magazines or catalogues is wonderful. It also means waiting for a break in the clouds before venturing forth only to reach the plot as the next heavy downfall starts in my case. An hour spent watching the hail bounce off the neighbours shed roof was enough to make me call it off for thursday. Back in the garden at home, there are all kinds of bulbs showing some colour.

The daffodils are giving way to irises and snakes head fritillaries while the summer showstoppers are peeking their noses through the soil, promising great things to come. There are new shoots on the clematis and roses to match the growth on the lawns. It does the soul good to see the signs of new life and to occasionally feel the sun warming your back . Work is now in progress on the plots and in the garden to fix, replace or remove some of those parts we gardeners call hard landscape . Fence panels battered and broken by the winter storms and paving which has cracked or crumbled due to prolonged frost and thaw need to be sorted out whilst many of us will be thinking about our backs and perhaps contemplating building raised areas to save us from bending so much.

There is construction afoot on the plot also as the important job of bean sowing begins in earnest. Beans are one of the staples of many civilisations around the globe and we in the UK are among them. Everything from baked beans at breakfast through runner beans with the sunday roast to the exotic sounding fava beans and the haricot bean, butter beans and even soya. More cosmopolitan tongues will know mung beans and the colourful borlotti beans. Behind the fancy names and foreign recipes lies a very rural truth though. Runner beans and kidney beans are the same plant, as are haricot and french beans. The beans cooked in that delicious sauce that top slices of toast across the country are also haricot beans. Basically, it's the way you process a bean that really makes the difference.My pots of runner beans are starting to break through the surface of the soil and slowly unfurl their glossy heart shaped leaves, like tall slim ballerinas stretching up and reaching for the sun. I have sown seeds I saved from last years crop, a practice many competitive growers rely on. I am growing climbing french beans again this year as, apart from the culinary aspects, they survive hot dry conditions better than runners.

This year is predicted to be as hot and rain free as previous years.

Both grow in pretty much the same way, started either early in pots or later outdoors directly in the soil and encouraged to twist and twine up canes or hazel sticks. The main difference is the size and shape of the pods and seeds. Both cook well as sliced pods and as beans and both dry well for storage and to use in other recipes. When dried the name change appears, with runners becoming kidney beans and french beans haricot beans.

One other thing that keeps me growing beans on my plot is purely aesthetic . All varieties of beans, climbing or otherwise , have beautiful bright simple flowers that cover the plants right through to the first frosts,just don't pick them! Until next time, Good Gardening!