29th August 2016 - harvesting

Well here we are again, at the end of a Bank Holiday Weekend wishing that we'd won the lottery so we could spend all of our days at the allotment (or is that just me?!)  This was also the last weekend before my boys went back to school, Littlest L has another week off much to her delight and her brothers disgust!  So Saturday was spent shopping for school shoes and trainers and the last bits and pieces that absolutely HAD to be bought.  The whole time we were shopping the sun was shining and it was warm.  As soon as we got in the car to come home the heavens opened and so there was no allotmenteering for me :-(

Sunday however was a much more productive day.  I decided a couple of weeks ago that I was going to clear the area next to the pond ready for sowing a mini wildflower meadow as well as planting bulbs and a couple of shrubs.  I have decided that next year I'm not going to allow it to grow completely wild because it did end up looking quite messy albeit that it was good cover for anything coming out of the pond.  I easily cleared the right side of the area because the mole had been doing it's work there and as a result the weeds just pulled up really easily and I could get my fork into the ground to remove some of the roots.  I planted my hydrangea next to the wood pile because I decided that will still give good cover in that area and it will look nice close to the shed.  I should also note that I didn't clear the ground elder from in and around the wood pile as I didn't want to disturb anything hiding in there.  The left side of the pond however was a nightmare.  The ground is so hard I can hardly get my fork into it, never mind trying to dig out all of the roots.  I had already pulled up all of the leaves before I realised so I can't even spray with my Richard Jackson's Weed Killer (which as you know I use sparingly).  I will therefore need to think about how I'm going to deal with that moving forwards.  On the plus side I did discover a few plants that I put in last winter that appear to have survived being covered over so hopefully I'll have a little bit of colour while I'm sorting it all out.

I also managed to harvest my onions on Sunday evening.  I was really pleased with the crop and they're currently drying in the polytunnel.  I watched a YouTube video from 'GrowVeg' about how to harvest and store onions. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=py2kPbSsgmA 

As suggested I will leave them for a week and once the skins are dried and flaky I'll have a go at hanging them.  I've never done it before so I'm hoping it will turn out ok.  I've got a mixture of sizes but I like to roast onions sometimes so the small ones I'll just throw straight into the mixed veg drawer for roasting and the rest I'll hang for use over the winter.  I need to sort out my pantry, which is currently used to store mostly shoes, to make sure there's a space for hanging veg for storage.  At the moment there is a sack of potatoes on the floor but I'd prefer for them to be hung up
Today I've spent the afternoon harvesting the last of my potatoes, they were King Edwards but the harvest wasn't nearly as good as the Maris Pipers.  I found that they had more slug/wire worm damage and they produced less even though they had significantly more leaf growth.  After harvesting I weeded the bed really well (helped along by digging up the spuds and removing loads of roots from the weeds that were in there, covered the whole lot with a thick mulch of the free manure/leaf mould mixed with my garden compost and planted in the kale my neighbour got me as well as the golden beetroot and red little gem lettuces I bought from the garden centre the other day, with a voucher my friend gave me.  I remembered to net them to keep the pigeon's off so hopefully I'll still get a harvest from them this year. 

I also managed to harvest some more blackberries so I made another batch of jam tonight and I'll keep harvesting them as I see them.  Hopefully we'll be able to avoid buying any more jam for the rest of the year (unlikely with the amount my children go through but it's a nice thought!)  I think all in all it was a very successful bank holiday weekend and I'm thrilled to be able to start actually eating some of the produce I've grown.

Until next week - happy gardening!

21st August 2016 - Jam Making

After a week off work today was at last a busy one down on the plot.  I arrived at 11 to meet a new tenant who has taken one half of a very overgrown plot.  It frustrates me that we have plots that people haven't worked and whilst the council are actually quite good and on top of people they still have to go through two inspections before they are evicted which means that someone can have their plot un-worked for a full season before they are evicted.  The poor lady taking the plot has to now clear waist high weeds; although on the plus side she has got a shed on there :-)

I was absolutely determined to get the wires up on my fence and the cherry tree fanned against it.  I got some galvanised wire which included 10 vine eye screws from Amazon.  I put 3 on each side with 2 fence posts in-between.  I screwed the vine eyes in only half way and drilled holes through the 2 fence posts to feed the wires through.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B017E1KHQY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Once I got the wires onto the vine eye screws I then tightened the screws to tension the wires; which worked really well.  As you can see I then fanned the tree against the fence and pruned off 2 branches that were left sticking out into the path.  

On either side of the cherry tree I've also added the two grape vines I've had in the polytunnel for a few weeks.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them but my neighbour has hers outside and I thought I'd give it a try.  I will prune them but I wanted to give them a week to bed in before I do it.

So, going back to the title of today's blog.  I picked around 450g of blackberries from my plot and from the paths around the allotment.  I realised that wasn't really enough to make anything with so I asked my lovely neighbour if I could scrump some apples from her.  I have never in my life made jam before but I thought I would give it a go (eek!) I bought 2 lemons (because my lemon tree is teeny tiny and has no fruit on it yet) because I read that blackberries don't have any pectin in them and so you should use lemon juice. I put the peeled and cored apples (450g after prep) the blackberries and the juice of the 2 lemons into a pan and simmered it together for about 10 mins.  Then I added 900g sugar (normal granulated, not jam sugar) and raised it to a rolling boil for another 10 mins.  In the meantime I chilled 2 plates in the freezer and washed 2 jam jars before putting them in the oven at 150oC to sterilise.  After 10 mins I put 1 teaspoon of the jam onto one of the chilled plates but it didn't wrinkle so I boiled it for another 3 mins and then did the wrinkle test again and it worked - I was sooooo excited.  I left the jam to cool for about half an hour before ladling it into the 2 jam jars AND IT SET!!!! 


The kids then had the little bit that was left on their toast and told me that it's nicer than the bought stuff.  Middle L told me I should sell it on eBay lol

I am ridiculously proud of myself, I know that most allotment people make jams and chutneys all the time but I have never done it before and I have read about how difficult it is to get jam to set.  I thought the lemons might work but I didn't really expect it to so yes, I'm ridiculously proud!

I'm away with work all week this week so I won't get to the plot at all during the week.  My lovely neighbour is going to pop up and water in the polytunnel for me but otherwise it will have to take care of itself.  Hopefully all will be well. Until next week then - happy gardening everyone :-)

20th August 2016 - Potatoes!

Well after an eventful week I got up to the plot today with the intention of lifting my potatoes.  I wasn't sure if I would manage to do both beds but I was worried that my bed of Maris Pipers wouldn't give me a good crop because the plants themselves had been a little pathetic.  I do a little bit of prep before lifting potatoes - I cut the plants off right to soil level and weed the whole bed.  Then I put my fork in (hoping to not hit any potatoes) and lift the whole plant out - give it a shake and pick up the potatoes.  I often have to fork the area again to catch any that dropped off as it was being lifted but I find that's the best way to try to ensure that no potatoes are left to grow next season!

Anyway, I needn't have worried.  This picture is from one half of one bed (the Maris Piper bed) and I've ended up with a sack full of potatoes from that one bed.  I haven't weighed them because I can't find my travel scale but I'm really happy with them.  There's a mixture of sizes and whilst some have holes in them from slugs or another critter I'm not worried about cutting around the holes.  I saw only 2 that had scab and none of them were squishy (which is a sure sign of blight).  Just a note on blight, while I'm on it...

Lots of people worry about blight and what to do with their plants if they have them.  I've seen loads of pictures of perfectly healthy plants being destroyed because the leaves have yellowed and then people saying they've burned them because they don't dare compost them.    

Blight starts with small, dark spots on leaves (usually around the edges) which often have a light green halo around them.  In warm, wet weather you may see a fine white downy growth which can release thousands of spores every day.  The spores can also be washed down the stem into the tubers, if the tubers are infected they have brown or purple marks on the skim and reddish/brown markings in the flesh.  Tubers might be firm when lifted but will rot during storage.  If your plants get blight you should cut off all of the foliage and put it in the compost.  You can compost leaves and stems because the spores can only live on live matter.  Once you have cut the stems the plant is no longer live and therefore can be composted.  You cannot however compost the tubers because they remain live and can grown new, blight infected, plants.  

If your potato plants have flowered and the flowers have died off, you're seeing green tomato like pods on your plants and your leaves are going yellow your plants are dying off at the end of the season just like they're supposed to.  In that case the potatoes are ready to be harvested, you don't need to destroy your hard work.  

I mentioned in my last post that I'd got a planting table from freegle.  I am still not sure what I'm going to do with it (Littlest L wants to make it into a bee table) but whilst I'm deciding I have lined it with weed membrane and put the pots onto it.  I do like the idea of a table of plants that attract bees and I might combine that with a fairy garden just because they make me smile and the idea of a bee fairy garden is appealing to me.  I don't know yet what plants I'm going to put in there, but given that we're nearly at the end of August I've got plenty of time to think about it before I need to plant it up so in the mean time I'm probably just going to keep my pots in there.  I like that they're raised off of the ground and away from the slugs (and it's a good place to put my drink!)

I've also decided that next year I will do more with the 'wildlife' area next to the pond.  I've got a couple of shrubs I'm going to plant there and my neighbour is giving me some yellow rattle seeds which should help to reduce the grass and let me grow more of the wildflower seeds.  On the plus side the moles have been working in that area and so hopefully it will be a bit easier to dig and plant into.

Tomorrow is the last day of my holiday and I'm hoping for good weather.  I really want to get the wires in place on the fence so that I can fan my cherry tree against it - watch this space!

17th August 2016 - what a week!

So I am away from work this week and I thought I would be able to get the final bag of wood chips to do my paths, I wanted to see how successful I've been with the netting against the squirrel and I wanted to lift my potatoes.  It was biggest L's birthday on Tuesday and Mr L had decided to go biking on Monday so I thought I'd pop up to the plot on Monday afternoon with Littlest L to have a quick potter about, check on the corn and deliver my new planting table that I got from Freegle.

I'd just picked up the table and was putting it into my car when I got a call from Mr L who said that he'd come off of his bike and could I come and take him to the hospital for an x-ray.  "I think I've sprained it" he says.  I drove home and took one look at it and absolutely knew that he'd broken it, it was pretty horrible and so off we go to A&E where we spent the next 8 hours with him being x-rayed and pushed around the hospital.  We eventually ended up in resuscitation where they needed to manipulate his broken wrist before getting it into a cast to help reduce the pain.  They said he will have to have an operation and the wrist specialist said it's pulverised.  They kept him in overnight and the next day (Biggest L's birthday) they wanted to do a CT test.  They kept him in all day and didn't do the CT, he had to go back on Friday for the CT and they didn't do the operation, he has to go back on Monday for the operation.  

The main point is that Mr L will be ok, he will have his operation and he'll be fine - he'll not be able to bend his wrist properly and he'll definitely not be riding his bike any time soon.

So, it's now late on Wednesday night and I haven't been to my plot at all; I haven't checked if my netting stopped the squirrel, for all I know it's completely shredded.  I haven't watered anything on my plot, all of my tomatoes might be dead and dried out.  I haven't finished the bark chippings,

Tomorrow is Thursday, it's the penultimate working day of my week off and tomorrow I will go to the plot.  GP Gills opens at 9.30am and I will be going to get my chippings.  I will have to do it on my own because Mr L can't help and the Little L's won't help so I'll go and get my own bark chippings and I'll transport them up the hill and I'll finish my paths.  I'm also going to see about drilling holes through my fence posts for the wire that I'm gong to train my cherry tree onto.

Let's all keep our fingers crossed that the weather is good ;-)

14th August 2016 - Swapping blog sites

I'm unfortunately having to swap blog sites because my old site suddenly wants to charge me quite a lot of money to blog with them.  I have copied all of the posts in relation to my current plot but I've lost all of the blogs from my old plot.  I do like, however, that on this blog page I can put more than one photo into the blog :-)

Moving on though, I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged - it's been busy at work and on the plot!  I had the final round of judging last Friday but unfortunately I didn't know they were coming and I was super busy at work so some of my pots looked a bit wilted when I got up there yesterday.  I also had the b*&#%^d squirrel eating my sweetcorn so there were 4 stripped cobs on my plants which were not only heartbreaking after working so hard to get them growing but also looked horrible for the judges to see!  I also wasn't able to finish the woodchips on the paths because GP Gills had been closed for 2 weeks - so that's a bit frustrating!

Anyway, onward and upwards.  I have been and created a net cover so I'm hoping that will stop the squirrel from eating the rest of the corn.  I've also planted 2 potato bags with my winter potatoes which hopefully will be ready for Christmas.  I decided to put them in bags to protect them from the frost and I've also put them right by the polytunnel door so I can easily drag them inside once we get closer to frosty weather!

I also used my little BBQ for the first time today, I bought it from The Range for just £6 in their sale and thought it was a bargain!  Mostly it will just be me so there's no need for a big BBQ, the only downside is that it's really close to the ground so I have to bend over it, which feels a bit dangerous to me (being super clumsy!)

I took a Slimming World burger and sausage and had salad from the garden with it - how lovely is that?  You cannot get any fresher than straight off of the plant and onto your plate.  The tomatoes are soooo tasty too; you literally cannot buy tomatoes that taste like home-grown ones.

Now that judging is finished I'm going to lift my potatoes, the King Edwards plants looked great so I'm hoping for good things but the Maris Piper's never really seemed to take off.  My neighbour thinks that there'll be loads of tubers and all the work has been done underground but I'm reserving judgement.  I'll be super disappointed though to not get a good crop after managing to avoid blight.  I have noticed a few dug up spuds, which I think is the handy work of the b*&#%^d squirrel again!

On the plus side I'm off work all week and although it's Big L's birthday on Tuesday and Mr L is planning to go mountain biking tomorrow and next weekend I will get to finally finish my paths and spend some time just relaxing at the plot.  I'm also starting to plan what I'm going to grow over the winter in the polytunnel (which is very exciting) and start thinking about my rotations for next season.  I am considering moving the flower bed to next to the shed so that I can see them better and then the three beds at the top and the two at the bottom will be the rotation beds.  I may still make one of those bottom beds into an asparagus bed but I haven't made a final decision on that yet.

23rd July 2016 - Full points :-)

Last week was first round of judging, I got up early on Saturday morning to get up to the plot and collect another load of chips to try and get my paths completed but unfortunately G.P. Gill's were doing some work on their woodchip store and so the woodchips weren't as good as they normally are and I only got one load.

It did, however, give me change to weed and get the last lot of hops onto the fruit bed so that bed looked lovely.  I also weeded all of the remaining beds and down the back fence (where they come over from next door).  The ladies who visited my plot got to the gate and said "wow!" which is always a good start.  They walked in and one of them said she felt relaxed already.  I showed them around and they awarded me full points, saying that it was almost as though I'd read the criteria... 

I will have a second round of judging from the professional judges so all of the little bits I wasn't quite happy with I will have to get resolved.  That means that this weekend I'm still carting woodchip up the hill and I'll need at least 1 more bag to finish it next week and I need to keep on top of the weeding to make sure that it doesn't go mad with the nice weather.

I also want to get some seeds in the polytunnel for planting after the potatoes have finished.  The potatoes are actually ready to harvest but I don't want to have 2 empty beds when they come come back to do the second judging so they'll have to stay in the ground for now.

This week I got 2 more loads of woodchips and so now I only have 3 of the north/south paths that need covering and it will be done.  Hopefully that will just be 1 more load although I'll probably still get 2 and perhaps use it for mulching in the strawberry and/or sweetcorn bed.   Talking of the sweetcorn bed, as you know I tried out a variation of the 3 sisters but it hasn't been hugely successful in terms of peas.  The sweetcorn are looking good (except for the ones that the birds have munched) and the pumpkins look fantastic.  I have 3 good sized pumpkins already and at least 1 more that looks promising.  I've used some of the leftover strawberry mats to rest the fruit onto.  They are impregnated with copper, which will hopefully keep the slugs away and they will mean that the pumpkins aren't sitting directly on the ground.

The sun was so hot again today that I left at lunchtime with the intention to go back this afternoon to water everything (especially in the polytunnel) and trim the lower leaves from the tomatoes to help them ripen.  There's no way I could have done that at lunchtime because the polytunnel was sooooooo hot it was unbearable to be in there.  In the mean time I've come back to the house; Mr L is cutting the tiny patch of grass that we have and I've tackled the weeds in the drive and at the front of the fence.  I don't understand why we seem to get loads of weeds on the path in front of our house when nobody else does but we do and so I need to keep on top of that.  

The other things I need to add to my to-do list for this weekend is to net my strawberry bed, which surprisingly given when I planted them in have started to flower, and I want to get some wires in to start training my cherry tree against the back fence.

10th July 2016 - Judging!

It's the time of year when all of the allotment competitions are going on.  I've entered for best plot and one of my containers for best container.  I am quite competitive and I've therefore been working hard to try and get my paths finished before judging.  I haven't quite managed it but hopefully with just another couple of bags it will be done.  As you can see I've covered the entrance and the path to the end of the plot.  I've done the first side path on the right and part of the path at the top adjacent to the fence.  I made a decision to put 4 slabs in the middle of the entrace which I can then use for a BBQ or fire pit or even to move my burning bin if I want to.  

I think I've mentioned before that I get my wood chips from G.P.Gill in Shipley, they are a tree surgeon who give away the wood chips for free - you just need to go and collect them.  From talking to other gardeners it seems that loads of tree surgeons do the same so it's a great free resource to look into if you're looking for a mulch or path covering.  People do sometimes talk about not using chippings as a mulch because it draws the nitrogen out of the soil.  I've done a little bit of research and that only happens very slightly if you dig the chippings into the soil and it's really not enough to worry about.  There are huge benefits of mulching the ground that far outweigh any worries about losing nitrogen.  It's also worth making sure that you are getting chips and not shredded wood.  You want smaller chips which will break down over time but that will also hold in moisture and keep your roots cool on hot days.  One of the downsides I've experienced from using mulch (of any description) is that they can be a home for our slimy friends.  Slugs like cool and moist places and of course mulch provides that habitat.  I'm not going to get into slug control today (I might do on another blog) but there are loads of different ways to keep slugs under control and I think even the problem of slugs do not outweigh the benefits of mulching.

I have a few pots left over from when I was doing the summer pots and hanging baskets in the garden and they had been left on the table outside my shed.  Today I decided that I would try and make my compost bins a bit more interesting.  The gaps between the bins are perfectly sized for some of my plant pots and so I've essentially ended up with 3 rows of 3 pots on each upright to make the compost bins look a little bit nicer.  I wouldn't normally bother but they are on your right immediately as you enter the plot and it seems silly to not put the pots there if they're just sitting about waiting for me to decide what to do with them!

I also got some more spent hops for my fruit bed.  The hops I put on last week aren't keeping the weeds down and so I went for some more and my plan is to pull out what has worked its way through before putting a thicker mulch on.  I'm not sure that it was the best idea to mulch without a weed membrane but if it doesn't work I'll have learnt a lesson!  The hops will keep the moisture in the soil so it will still do a job even if I need to still weed I'm not going to complain.  Someone pointed out that spent hops can be particularly attractive to slugs - I haven't experienced that so far but I'm keeping an eye on it.  

I was very excited to find some red tomatoes in the greenhouse and whilst the polytunnel ones haven't caught up yet I have green tomatoes in there and I've also got teeny tiny cucumbers, peppers and chillis so that's exciting.  I also have flowers on my melons so it will be interesting to see if any of them develop into fruit.

Next week I'm hoping to finish the paths completely, which means that I'll need to tidy up the very last bit of overgrowth behind the strawberry bed.  I've offered the last of the slabs to my neighbour so hopefully she'll have taken those (and if not I'll stick them in the wheelbarrow and bob them down to her) and I need to move the green bin that has been left on the plot.  The area behind my compost bins is very overgrown with nettles and comfrey, which I've left for the bees.  I'm not going to cover ground but I think I'm going to leave it all for now and then once it dies back in the autumn I'll tidy the area  and then let it continue to grow in exactly the same way each year - ultimately using them as fertiliser.  Once that's all done I will be able to potter about doing just a bit of weeding here and there and watering as needed.  How nice will it be to be able to just enjoy the fruits of my labour?!

Until next week then, I hope you have a lovely week and happy days spent in the garden.

4th July 2016 - Almost finished!

I want to get all my paths covered with woodchips and to that end I was up early on Saturday morning to get to the tree surgeons and fill 2 ton bags with the free chippings.  I'll be having a few early Saturday mornings until I've managed to sort out the chippings for all the paths, which I want to do in the next couple of weeks.   

My lovely neighbour dropped off some of her spare chippings which she put in front of my shed for me.  Those chippings are a different colour to the ones that I collected myself which I think is again going to differentiate the little area in front of my shed as different to the rest of the plot,  If it really looks bad I can just mix them all up of course but I am expecting it to look cool.

I've entered my plot into the allotment competition - eek!!  I have entered my fairy container garden in the container category and I've entered the plot in the best plot category.  I don't think I've any chance of winning the best plot but you never know; I am hopeful on the container one though because it really is lovely (even if I do say so myself!)

The other free thing I discovered this weekend was spent hops from my local brewery.  The brewery want to try and avoid sending the hops to landfill and I am super keen to use free resources.  I did a little bit of research and found...

Spent hops are regarded mainly as humus suppliers and are used in the preparation of ground for planting and also for mulching established plants. The best results are obtained when they are incorporated thoroughly with the top 15cm (6in) of soil at the rate of 5kg (101b) per square meter (yard) during the winter. For mulching purposes spent hops are very effective in keeping down weeds and retaining soil moisture in shrub borders and soft fruit plots, provided the ground is covered really thickly. If you apply a layer 10-15cm (4-6in) thick it will last for two years before rotting noticeably. The material gives off an objectionable odour after application but this usually disappears after 2-3 weeks. Although spent hops are slightly more acid than most soils they are used with great success for practically all trees and shrubs except for some of the outstanding lime-requiring plants.

As you already know I have such a problem with weeds in my fruit bed and I have used the hops I collected as a mulch on that bed to try and surpress the weeds.  It is my intention to go back at the end of this week and get another batch to put a thicker layer onto the bed which will then hopefully give the appropriate thickness to keep those weeds down.  I don't expect it to work on the bindweed but I'll keep my fingers crossed.  The only other consideration to give on using spent hops is whether it will attract the slugs.  We know that beer traps are really effective and so it should be expected that they will be attracted to the hops (which 3 days later have still left a beer smell in my car!)  

I have said before that I use Richard Jacksons slug and snail control pellets.  I know some people are really against any types of slug pellets and are very cynical about anything that retailers say but these pellets are certified as organic and pose no threat to pets, birds, hedgehogs, worms, bees and other useful insects.  

http://www.qvcuk.com/Richard-Jacksons-Slug-&-Snail-Control-1.2kg-Advanced-Formula.product.502952.html?sc=PSCH&cm_sp=VIEWPOSITION-_-6-_-502952

One of the main things to remember when using pellets is not to use too much.  The pellets should be scatter, not put into a pile - I used 3 small handfuls on a 6'x13' bed and you really don't need more than that.  Also with these pellets you have to remember that if they're disappearing that's because the slugs and snails are eating them.  I tend to apply them at the weekend and then mid-week.  I've put them on the spent hops and I've put them on the brassica bed where I have the veggiemesh and the frogs can't get in.  

I actually left the plot at around 5pm on Sunday because I had done all of the jobs I'd wanted to do for the weekend.  That is the first time that's happened since I got my plot and it's very exciting.  Mr L keeps asking me what I'm going to do when all the jobs are done, I'm actually looking forward to being able to pop up to the plot, do a bit of weeding and watering and relax by the side of my pond.  It's also getting close to harvest time - the potatoes are flowering and the onion are really coming on.  

Until next week then, happy gardening x

26th June 2016 - Paths and stuff!

I see lots of questions about what people use for paths.  There are many pros and cons but personally I like bark chippings.  I've talked before about the weed membrane I use from amazon.  It is 50m long (1m wide) and comes with 40 plastic pegs for £22.99 with no UK delivery charge; I'm impressed with the quality of it because I have been walking on it for a weeks now without anything on top of it and it's absolutely fine.  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006H1N0SA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I get my bark chippings from our local tree surgeon, they let you collect it for free and they even sometimes have some lovely stepping stones.  The only downside is that they close at 11.30am on a Saturday and they're not open on a Sunday so this weekend when I wanted to make a start on covering my paths they had closed by the time we'd finished ferrying the kids around the place!  

It did however give me a chance to finish off the weed membrane against the back fence, it's not an area that I particularly walk on a lot so the weeds had gone mad and my poor neighbour, who keeps his plot beautiful, was probably cursing me with the weeds growing up and through the fence!  It's also great that I got that finished because it would be sensible to start in that corner to put the bark down and work back towards the gate so I'm not barrowing over what I've already put down! Next week I will be getting up super early on Saturday to start filling my ton bags with chippings and hopefully I will get at least 3 loads done before they close and then we'll see how much I'm actually going to need.

I've also decided that I'm going to cover my fruit bed again; you might remember that some weeks ago I uncovered it because there were weeds pushing up around my fruit bushes and I was met with an absolute mess of weeds.  I cleared it all and left it uncovered.  I really wish I'd trusted my original decision.  I originally decided to cover it because of a number of factors...

1. the bed it too wide for a normal bed (6'6") and therefore much more difficult to weed because it's a stretch to reach the middle.
2. the fruit bushes are all spikey and it's really hard to weed around them
3. the bird netting that is over the bed makes it really awkward to get in and weed regularly

Since removing the membrane from the bed I have of course struggled to weed and therefore this weekend I needed to clear the bed again and so I have decided that I am going to cover it again and then mulch with bark chippings.  Today I finished the weeding and managed to get the rhubarb into the ground.  I know it's not an ideal time to transplant but I removed all of the stalks and had minimul disturbance to the rootball and crown so hopefully I'll still get some more stalks from it.

I was also excited to see a Jay on my plot (photo in June 2016), I've never seen one before so it's always fabulous to see something new.  On the downside I also have a squirrel (Mr Squibble) that has started visiting and has already trashed one of my bird feeders.  I love wildife but I think I'm going to have to look at a baffle to discourage it.

I moved 2 of my sweet potatoes up to the plot with the intention of putting the into one of my potato bags but I didn't get a chance.  I've left 2 at home in the greenhouse and whilst I'll also put them into potato bags I will keep them at home so that I can compare how they grow in the different areas.  

Until next week - happy gardening!

19th June 2016 - Hand v/s Hoe!

I have often commented that I believe hand weeding is better than hoeing.  I felt that because I'm pulling the weed out at the root and not leaving it on the soil it must be better.  I have used a hoe and haven't really liked it - I'm scared of catching something and breaking it or going too deep and getting into the roots.  The hoe however is excellent for earthing up potatoes.

I therefore left my tomato bed in the polytunnel for about a week and a half so the annual weeds really had a chance to grow (I can't tell you how hard it was to not weed!)  I decided to do it in the polytunnel because I thought that it would reduce the amount of outside influence to the weeds so no seeds blown in or dropped by the birds.  

I have 8 tomato plants in the polytunnel so I hand weeded up to the first 4 plants and then got my hoe out for the second 4.  I didn't remove any hoed weeds from the soil surface (I've seen people saying that the sun burns them up so you don't need to).  I did pull a few weeds by hand close to the stems of my tomatoes to protect them; as you would if you were hoeing anyway. 

pro's and cons...

Hand weeding

pros

• you get more weeds right out at the roots
• there's less liklihood of damaging tender plants
• you can easily remove and compost the annual weeds
• you notice any perennial weeds (not that I had any) and so you can remove them properly

cons

• it takes much much much longer to weed by hand

Hoeing

pros

• it's super quick

cons

• it's easy to catch a tender plant
• it's easy to catch roots if anything is shallow rooted
• you only cut out the heads of the weeds and leave the roots

I thought I would measure the results based on how it looks a week later.  This week I therefore went up to take a look and there was very little difference between the 2!  The hoed side had some bigger weeds, that had either been missed or re-rooted itself and some new little ones, the hand weeded side only had the little ones so if you were being picky you would say that hand weeded side won but if you prefer hoeing I'd say it's just as good!  I will probably do a mixture - I do like hand weeding because I find it relaxing but if I'm in a rush I won't feel guilty about hoeing.

This weekend I also managed to strim the boundaries of my plot and get weed membrane down along the fence at the top of the plot.  I've been meaning to do that for ages and it already looks 100 times better.  I've also strimmed down the side of the fruit cage and next to the next door fence.  I've been feeling guilty about my neighbour who keeps his plot lovely and the path down the side nearest his plot was overgrown with weeds.  I've now cleared all of them and whilst I haven't got the weed membrane down yet it's much tidier.  I didn't dare strim at the side of the polytunnel so I'll have to get my shears out and do that by hand before covering it.  

Once I have the last of the weed membrane is down I can start to think about getting the bark chippings to cover it.  I have a local tree surgeon who gives the chippings away for free so I will be making the most of that service (hopefully next week).  Littlest L is away on cub camp and so I've asked Mr L if he would mind coming to help me get as many chippings as we can on Saturday morning.  Littlest L needs to be at the camp drop-off place at 9.30 and biggest L also needs dropping at school at 9.30 for his rehearsal but that should hopefully give us plenty of time to get some chippings.  My thought is that if we get a ton bag filled and then if we can get it out of the car one of us can start transporting it up to the plot while the other goes back and fills another bag.  Let's see how we manage with that but if I can get 2 bags it will give me a good idea of how much I actually need (loads I think!)

Over the coming weeks I'll have less to blog about with regards to getting things in place and sorted, all of my 'building work' is done and so once the chippings are in place my work will be all about the crops.  It will be interesting to see how I get on with blogging after that - I'll have to have more thought about content to keep myself (and hopefully you) interested!

Anyway, until next week - happy gardening

6th June 2016 - Wear Sunscreen

As you may have worked out from my title this week, I really burnt myself this weekend; I knew it was going to be a sunny day so when I arrived I put my sunscreen on my face, arms and the back of my neck.  I use Ultrasun which is one that you put on at the start of the day and you don't have to reapply.  It is really good and I have always found it to be great, when I put it on.  Unfortunately however, I was so hot yesterday that I decided to roll up my shirt and tie it with a hair tie (like I used to do at school) and completely forgot to put sunscreen on my back.  I am therefore burnt to a cinder and in lots of pain.  So for goodness sake, don't forget to wear your sunscreen all the time!

Anyway, on to happier things.  This weekend I had all my beds in place and all I had to do was fill my last one.  I debated about getting another ton of topsoil but at £40-£45 it seemed like more than I needed and whilst buying bags of topsoil/compost/manure is costly if you're going to do it to fill all of the beds as a one off with a total cost of £29 I have saved a minium of £11 if I could have gotten the cheaper topsoil.  This bed is my rogue bed of flowers.  I wanted to have a cut and come again flower bed but also I'm hoping all of the flowers will attract lots of pollinators to my crops.  

The other job I had wanted to get done this week was look at my irrigation system.  I work full time and often long hours, it's not unusual for me to arrive at site as everyone else is leaving in the evening.  My thought was that if I could set up an irrigation system that I can arrive on site, turn on the tap and be doing other jobs while my crops are being watered.  

http://www.waterirrigation.co.uk/watering-kits/outdoor-watering/drip-kits/kingfisher-micro-irrigation-set.html

I used a micro irrigation set, which includes the tubing, drippers, connectors etc.  I'm worked hard to set the system up and thought a lot about ensuring the drip lines were set correctly, it recommends the first line is higher than the next and so on, my plot does have a slight slop and luckily the tap is in the right place to help me make that happen.  It recommended that the drippers were 12" apart, which I did but then there weren't enough of them.  I also don't know what I expected but 1 line in a 3' wide bed isn't enough to really water the bed fully, so I need to do more work on it but I'm hopeful that I can make it work as I want.

I really feel now like I'm atually going to start to be able to focus on growing, all of my building work is done and whilst there's still areas to tidy up and I still need to get the rest of my weed membrane down, before transporting (I can't even imagine how much) woodchips up to cover the paths.

I will be back up at the plot tomorrow, hopefully with a last piece of MDPE pipe for my cloches from Freegle, I know that my potato beds need weeding and I'm pretty sure that I saw some bind weed on my raspberries as I left and didn't have time to go back and look at properly.  

So until next week - happy gardening

30th May 2016 - Spring Bank Holiday Weekend

This weekend has been all about getting the final beds in place on the plot; I went and got 7 scaffolding boards from the local scaffolders for just £4 per board and that was more than enough to complete the last 3 beds on my plot.  On Saturday I had another ton of topsoil delivered and once again Mr L came up to the plot, built my beds and brought the topsoil up the hill.

Mr L filled the bed in the polytunnel, he didn't leave room for any manure; which I really wanted to do so I just added some dried chicken manure instead.  I needed to get the tomatoes transplanted because they were really becoming pot-bound and if I wanted to get them growing I needed to plant them into the beds.  I've only ever grown tomatoes in growbags or hanging bags before so it will be really interesting to see how well they do in the bed.  By growing in bags I've learnt how important it is to water (and feed) them to their roots so I have planted them with their pots planted at the side of them.  I then water into the pots which means that water isn't pooling around the stem and the water gets right down to the roots.  As the plant gets bigger I can replace the pots with bigger ones.   I've also transplanted my cucumbers into the bed, they have been in fibre pots and the roots were starting to come through so it was time to plant them out too.  I've seen lots of comments recently about fibre pots, people have complained they don't breakdown, they dry out or that they get mouldy so I wanted to just make a comment on my experience with them.

I have used fibre pots for a couple of years now.  I used to find that I would water them and they would almost immediately dry out.  It is true that the smaller the pot the faster the compost dries out and so you have to solve that problem!  I found that if I layered 5 pieces of kitchen paper into a gravel tray (you will probably have to fold it to make it fit so make sure it fills the gravel tray and you therefore alternate the side that the fold is so that it's equal thickness on each side) and kept them properly wet the pots did not dry out.  It's important that the pots are not standing in water but on very wet paper.  With this approach I found that not only did the pots not dry out but the roots of the plant can work their way out of the pot more easily.  I have capillary matting now so I don't have to worry about that any more but it essentially does the same job!  In relation to the 'mould' on the pots; the white stuff that people call mould is just the fibre pots breaking down; it is a sign that they are too wet but it's not something that will infect your plants.  When you plant them into bigger pots with soil and more water that's exactly what happens to them, it's just under the soil so you can't see it :-)  Finally the question about the pots breaking down.  I don't know whether people expect that the pots will be planted into the soil and just disappear but that's not what happens.  With the fibre pots the roots will come out through the pots and you will probably be able to see the pot until the end of the growing season.  If your roots don't come out and the plant effectively becomes root bound then your pot hasn't been kept wet enough (which can be resolved with the tip above).

So, back to the beds outside...

I did not have enough topsoil to fill either beds but I had brassica's in the polytunnel that desperately needed to be planted out.  I therefore decided to fill my beds with a mixture of manure, topsoil and compost.  I know that brassica's would prefer that the manure was added in Autumn but I'm pretty certain they'd rather have manure now than nothing to grow in!  I'm prepared to roll the dice and hope it works with an acknowledgement that I might have to sacrifice them; let's see how they go!  I got a free 2.1m x 4.5m veggiemesh from www.gardening-naturally.com when I ordered the bird netting; I'm delighted that it's exactly the right size for my bed and while I don't have any net clips left (I've ordered some more today) I have fashioned a fix with some of the leftover planks until they arrive.

I also only have 1 bed left to fill and so I don't think I'll be buying another ton of topsoil, whilst I accept that buying bags of soil is a more expensive approach I also realise that spending £45 on more topsoil than I need is a false economy and so I will buy the bags and take the hit this time.  My plan for my last bed is to make it a cut and come again flower bed.  

Overall I am pretty much there with the structural work on my plot.  I have more weed membrane to put down and I can't even begin to imagine how much woodchips I'll need but there are no more areas that don't have the potential to be productive, there are no more structures to build and no more topsoil to transport.  Mr L could not be happier!

I recently had a doctor ask me if I'd thought about joining a gym (after dismissing working on an allotment as a form of exercise) - this weekend (4 days because I took Friday off and it was the bank holiday today) I've spent over 25 hours on my plot.  I have carried 7 scaffolding planks up the hill as well as 450l compost, 150l manure and 200l topsoil.  I have cut the grass with a handmower, laid weed membrane and lined my beds with cardboard.  All of these things I've done in the sunshine so I really don't understand why spending 3 hours in a sweaty gym would better than that!

I want to finish by mentioning an app that I have come across on one of the Facebook pages I'm a member of.  It's called Gardroid and there is a free version or the premium version (which costs around £1.75).  The free version has just vegetables whilst the premium version has fruit and herbs as well.  You already know that I use KGI Garden Planner and this does not replace that.  I am however genuinely impressed with the app, you put in the date that you sowed something and it works out when you should be able to harvest (it even puts the date into your calendar!) you can log when you transplant and every time you water and it tells you when to water next.  As well as all that, when you click on a plant it tells you everything you need to know about it - how deep to put your seeds, how far apart to sow, what sun it wants and what soil it needs.  

I particularly like the app because I can access it when I'm on the plot, I can click to say I've watered everything or I can click on individual plants.  If I sow something new, I can add it to 'my garden'.  I have sent a suggestion to add flowers, particularly those that are good as companion plants so hopefully they will be added soon - watch this space!

Back to work tomorrow but hopefully I'll be able to pop up to the plot after work when I might be able to take more soil up to fill that last bed.  In the mean time - happy gardening everyone.

22nd May 2016 - Jobs for the weekend

Every week I watch Gardeners world and I particularly like Monty's jobs for the weekend section.  I am generally quite disorganised so this week I was inspired to write my own list - I didn't expect to get through it all so I prioritised it.  My thought was that if I had a list it would help me to focus on the things that need to be done.

1. remove leaves from last potato bed and earth up potatoes
2. weed beds
3. turn over compost
4. make staging for polytunnel
5. fasten down weed membrane around polytunnel
6. fasten bird netting to polytunnel doors
7. put netting over the pond
8. make cloche hoops for beds
9. clear last section of plot
10. Cut grass 
11. mark out last beds
12. put down weed membrane for rest of paths
13. plant out sweetcorn, peas and pumpkins
14. make last 3 beds (2 outside, 1 in polytunnel)
15. plant tomatoes and cucumbers into grow bags/pots
16. plant melons into final pots
17. set up irrigation

I actually managed to do the first 8 things on the list; I was particulary pleased with the staging in the polytunnel.  I bought some aluminium angle from ebay, I already had some from my greenhouse staging that I wasn't using but it wasn't quite enough.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251945461691?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&var=550816203601&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 I had timber left over from building the polytunnel, I measured all the pieces and Mr L cut them all for me - I had used some of the staging from the greenhouse so I didn't want there to be a big step between the two; when I measured them against each other there was just a small step up.  I used an off-cut to make sure the batons were evenly spaced and I think it looks as good as a bought one.  

I think I said on a previous blog that I had covered one of my potato beds with leaves to protect them from the frost; last week I took the fleece off of the other bed and it was covered in weeds.  I spent ages clearing the weeds and earthing up the potatoes but I didn't have time to clear the other one and I was dreading what I would find.  This week I bit the bullet and cleared the bed because the potatoes were starting to come through and they needed earthing up.  I was really surprised to find that there were no weeds in the bed at all.  I moved all of the leaves into my compost bin which wasn't ideal but I don't have a leaf mould bin.  Putting them in there did make me turn the compost over though so that was a bonus!  

I also bought some MDPE pipe from Toolstation to make my cloche hoops.  I decided that I would put hoops on all of the beds because whilst I'm not going to net all of them if the hoops are in place there's no reason to move them and I can then cover as I need to.  I got 50m of the 20mm pipe, it was the cheapest and there's really no need to get a thicker one for more money.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/p20350?table=no

I also used the fixing band again to secure the pipe to the beds.  I found with the strawberry bed that if I pushed the hoop into the ground and then fixed the band at the top of the bed then the hoop is really solid so I did the same again.

http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Multi-Purpose-Builders-Fixing-Band-20mmx10m/p/246015

I'm nearly there with the structural work on my plot and the planting is very much underway; my polytunnel staging is pretty full and I generally use the Chelsea Flower Show as a good benchmark for the time to be able to plant out.  Next week is the show and another bank holiday weekend so I'm hoping that the weather will be good enough for me to get everything out.  I need to buy more peas to plant because the majority of mine haven't grown but I've got a good crop of sweetcorn (which I want the peas to grow up) and the pumpkins are looking good as ground cover.

I like the idea of doing a list, it helped me to focus and meant that I got more done; I'll have 3 days next week so I'm hoping that I'll get the rest of the list done; I'm going to see if I can get some more scaffolding planks to make the last 3 beds and then I can really focus on the growing. 

Quick update before I go, I put the capillary matting down to keep my seedlings watered in the week, whilst they seedlings weren't completely dried out the matting was dry so I will need to go to the plot in the week to keep it watered.  This week I also left the doors open with bird netting covering it so that might mean it doesn't get so hot in there while I'm away.  I'll keep you posted :-)

Happy gardening everyone...

15th May 2016 - Weeds, weeds, weeds

This weekend has been primarily driven by the weeds on my plot!  I really want to have a no-dig plot because I do believe that ground that is disturbed is quickly taken over by weeds that have been waiting for such an opportunity. The new weeds may be even more vigorous than the ones you wanted to eliminate in the first place and so it's better to try and leave the soil as undisturbed as possible.

I think I've said before that my fruit bed is not an ideal raised bed, it's too big (6'6" x 13') and the top corner is really close up to the fence which just makes it awkward to get to; the fruit bushes are also all pretty scratchy and for those reasons I'd decided that I would spend time preparing the bed thoroughly before covering it with weed membrane; which I did back in September when I got the plot.  Over the last couple of weeks I've been weeding the edges where the membrane wasn't quite tight to the edge but then I had some grass growing up through the hole for one of the gooseberry bushes so I lifted the membrane and OMG what a nightmare!   I had couch grass, doc, dandelion, bind weed and marestail in there.  

I used to get really stressed about weeding but I now just think that it's a part of gardening - there's no point getting upset because you'll never get rid of them and so it's better to just accept and crack on!  I have never had marestail before though and I did attempt to dig down to get rid of one but it broke off at 2' deep!  I have it in my potato and onion beds as well so I'm just breaking it off and sticking it straight into the fire - I'll just have to keep up to it.

I also took the fleece off of the potato bed and found loads of annual weeds which I mostly pulled out by hand to avoid chopping the top off of any marestail.  I did find that one of my potatoes has shot up and I carefully cleared the weeds around it before earthing it up - hopefully I'll have some more in the next few days.  I will also be removing the leaves that I used to protect my other potato bed and see if that's worked next week.

Mr L also had a busy weekend - he finished the polytunnel and I could not be more excited.  I have posted a photo diary of it but to be able to have a space on the plot where I can raise my seedlings is just invaluable.  As you can see from the photo here I have covered the whole base with weed membrane.  Now that I've discovered marestail and bindweed on the plot I really want to do whatever I can to keep them out of the tunnel.  You can also see that I have staging set up at the right side, because my plot is on a slope Mr L has put the staging legs onto bricks because I didn't want the staging to be dropped lower, which I thought might cause backache when I was using it.  I had some staging that I don't use from my greenhouse and so I have used the aluminium angle from that to support the staging but I didn't have enough to go all the way along and so I've ordered some more from ebay to finish is off and then I'll have staging all the way along.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251945461691?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&var=550816203601&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I've already talked about the capillary matting that I bought from Homebase a few weeks ago.  I have been really pleased with it in the greenhouse and because I will not be able to go to the plot every day to water things in the polytunnel it will be invaluable to making sure that my seedlings are kept watered while I'm away.  I'm not sure that it would keep things watered for 2 weeks while you're on holiday because the reservoirs need to be filled regularly to keep the matting wet but I don't know how long the matting would stay wet without the reservoirs.

Mr L also finished my fruit cage frame for me today.  I had wanted some netting that was more robust than the pea netting you can get from the supermarket because that's a nightmare to work with and really only lasts for 1 season.  I wanted something that would last for a number of seasons that I could staple to the top but then fasten and peg down but be able to easily lift when I need to and I found it at gardening-naturally.com which I discovered from a leaflet in a magazine.  The holes are big enough to easily let polinators into the cage and my fruit bushes whilst keeping those pesky birds out.  I lost nearly all of my currents last year because I was too late getting my fruit caged and I wasn't going to make the same mistake this year!

http://www.gardening-naturally.com/cgi-bin/bb000002.pl?WD=netting%20bird&PRODUCTPAGE=Bird_Netting%2ehtml#aBN000

I was impressed with the different sizes available and the cost was very reasonable.  We stapled the netting on the 'roof' of the frame and then each side has the netting stapled just at the top.  I've used the crop cover clips (that I talked about on a previous blog) to hold the net into the ground and then I've just used a covered wire to close the corners.  The idea is that if I need to get into the cage to weed or pick fruit I can just lift the side that I want access to without damaging the netting and so that I can easily cover it back again.

http://www.gardening-naturally.com/cgi-bin/bb000002.pl?PRODUCTPAGE=Crop_Cover_Clips%2ehtml%23acropcoverclip&PRODUCTREF=cropcoverclip#acropcoverclip

When I sat back today having a quick drink and relaxing before going home I was looking at how close we are to finishing all of the structural work on the plot.  I have 2 more external beds (between the strawberries and polytunnel) and 1 bed inside the polytunnel and then that's all of the 'building' work will be done.  Mr L keeps asking if I really need the extra 2 beds and the answer is probably no, I could do without them but the space is there and there's so much more that I'd be able to grow if I had them and so I want them!  I will hopefully be going to the scaffolding man this week and to buy the last few boards I need, once they're filled with topsoil I'm sure Mr L will be thrilled to know that I won't need him any more (although I hope he'll still pop up every now and then to say hello!)

Oh! Finally, when I was sat back having my drink a woodpecker popped along to say hello!  He landed on the side of my garden arch (which I hoped he wouldn't peck!) for just a couple of seconds.  It was super thrilling because I've never seen one before, I just wished he'd stayed for long enough for me to take a photo of him.  As I was leaving to go home he flew across the plot like an RAF Tornedo, just a flash of black, white and red saying goodbye! 

So, that's all from me this weekend - I hope you've had as good a weekend as I did :-)  Happy gardening everyone!