5th April 2018 - Winter is never ending

This year has been a nightmare so far!  Winter seems to never be going away - every time I thought it was improving it would snow again!  It snowed on 2nd April or goodness sake.  I did still manage to get up to the plot for a little bit of tidying but I still feel like I'm behind with everything - especially my new plot!

Looking at 85a to start with though, I have installed a wildlife camera after my plot was robbed (I know, closing the door after the horse has bolted) and whilst thankfully I haven't had any more problems I have had some photos of my plot when I'm not there.  It's amazing how many pigeons and rooks come to the plot and I definitely need to work out how to stop them from eating all the food on the bird feeders!


On the few days in between the snow I found that my hellebores were flowering and that the frogs were busy in the pond.  I now have a big ball of frogspawn which fingers crossed will give me lots of new frogs later in the year.  I also noticed today that both peony plants were starting to grow - last year only one of them grew so I'm surprised and very happy to see the second one starting to grow - hopefully we'll see flowers on it this year.  The original peony has lovely white flowers and I've used a twister plant support that I bought from QVC (product code 514104); they're really clever because you just gather the stems into the twister and it supports the stems without damaging them - I'll try and get a picture when it's flowering.  I've just popped a pyramid shaped topiary form over the second peony but I'll probably swap it out for another twister support before it starts to flower.

Some of the jobs I've done so far this year is the pruning of the raspberries; they are autumn fruiting so need to be cut down to the ground in early spring.  I've pruned the berries in the fruit-cage and I pruned the grape vine in the polytunnel.  I still need to finish tidying the polytunnel and the shed but all of the beds are looking good and ready to go once the soil heats up.

In the new plot (86a) I've strimmed the whole plot but haven't managed to get it covered yet.  There are boards pushed into the ground that I can't get out so I need Mr L to come and help me, they also hammered metal stakes into the ground that need to be removed if we can manage it.  I also want to remove all of the current beds so that I can start again from scratch.  My plan is to cover the whole plot with weed membrane and then I'm going to build the beds and cut the membrane out from inside.  I will take photos or maybe do a video when I get started properly with it.

Today on 86a however I planted an apple tree at the entrance.  It was a tree that's been given to me by another plot holder and I've had it in a big bucket in the shed for a few days but today I was able to get it planted.  It's slightly late to be moving apple trees but even though it's been dug up and moved it had loads of buds so you never know we might even get some blossom and apples this year.  I also lightly pruned any branches that were crossing.

I'm hoping to get back up to the plot again this week before I go back to work but who knows what the weather will do in the next few days, so until next time - Happy Gardening :-)

26th November 2017 - Expanding

The exciting news this week is that Mr L has been given the plot next door to mine; not that he'll ever go up there so it's all mine 😃  The plot hasn't been worked for at least 2 years and all the last plot holder did to it was remove all the weed membrane so it's just really overgrown.  I know that the tenant before last put compost onto the now very overgrown beds and I know that there were some small fruit trees that have been removed and left some holes. 

I have decided that rather than trying to fit things in around the few beds that are already there I'm going to remove them all and use the compost from the existing beds in them to  fill the holes around the plot before I cover the whole lot in membrane.  That will then give me the space to plan what I want to do with it before I start building beds.  I have a greenhouse at home that I'm probably going to take up there so I'll need to decide where to put that.  I'm also planning to remove the pallets that were put up at the side to make a fence and replace with chicken wire (in fact I might remove the whole fence down that side and re-do it).

My job today was to strim the plot.  I wanted to get it all cut back so that I could see what was going on.  As you can see, now that it's been strimmed there is still lots to do.  I need to trim the hedges and in the top right corner of this picture there is a gap in the hedge so I'm going to have to put some chicken wire there to secure it as well.

I am so excited to be able to expand.  I want to have a bigger strawberry bed and I want to have an asparagus bed, other than that it will just be more of the same.  I had some success with onion and potatoes this year so I'm hoping that more space will mean I can grow more and think about how I'm going to use my produce better.  

Happy gardening everyone x

5th November 2017 - Preparing for Winter

I was away with work for a couple of weeks and so I haven't been able to spend as much time at my plot as I'd like; especially as I had so many jobs to do to prepare for the winter months.  I was absolutely devastated when I got back to find that someone had been on my plot and stolen my bench and all of my decorations.  Every wind chime and gnome and ornament including all the things the little L's have bought me are gone.  I really don't understand why people feel the need to take other people's things! :'(

Anyway, on to brighter things.  I wanted to be more organised this year so I've used my new bullet journal to make an allotment to-do list.  For anyone who doesn't know what a bullet journal is it's an 'old fashioned' diary but with everything together in one place so rather than just a diary you can include everything that's important to you.  You basically get a blank notebook with dots instead of lines and then you make your pages to suit whatever you need.  If you're interested in more then take a look at http://bulletjournal.com/ or the many bullet journal pages on Facebook and Pintrest. 

Last weekend I had managed to weed the onion bed and planted my onions and garlic but I had so many more jobs that I needed to do.  As you know, I am a no-dig gardener and I hear lots of things said about no-dig gardening.  The one thing that frustrates me more than anything else is when people say things that are just nonsense!  So, the only thing different between a no-dig gardener and a dig gardener is that when we put our mulch on at the start or end of the season we don't dig it in.  We don't use any more compost than a dig gardener (people seem to have visions of needing lorry loads of compost lol).  If we need to dig to harvest crops then we do that because - well, how else do people think I'm going to harvest potatoes and parsnips?!  You absolutely can do no-dig gardening if you have clay soil, bind weed, horsetail, couch grass (or any other perennial weeds).  In fact, I've found that in 2 seasons the amount of the hated 3 (above) have really reduced.  I don't understand the idea that you can't if you have clay soil - digging soil is SO bad for it.  

This weekend I was determined to get at least half of the rest of my list done.  I had the bed that I'd had the onions in last season that was really weedy and needed to be cleared and covered.  I like to make sure that beds that I'm not growing in over winter are cleared and covered; last year there was one bed that I had planted some kale in but forgot to net them so they were decimated by the pigeons and in spring the bed was so weedy that it was embarrassing (I even covered it before the inspection because I didn't want anyone to see how bad it was!)

I'm hoping you can see from the picture that I have 2 beds fully covered now but you probably can't see that half of the bed behind the strawberries is also covered.  I have planted some swede in the top half, and I remembered to net them) but then I didn't have anything to put into the other half so I've covered it for now.  I still need to clear the old brassica bed because the cabbage whites got my sprouts so they need to come out.  The swede in that bed are fantastic and I'm told that you can leave them in and they'll be perfectly fine.  The only problem with that is that I then won't be able to cover the bed so I might need to have a think about that.  

The other jobs I need to do is finish clearing the polytunnel, tidy the fruit cage and tidy my very messy shed!!  I do wonder if the fact that it was such a mess put off the thieves when they were on my plot (because it always looks like it's already been turned over!!!!)  We are decorating at home so I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it but I am going to try to get up to the plot at least once a month over the winter this year.  I'd be interested to know what jobs you all do over the winter months so please feel free to add comments below.

Until next time - happy gardening :-)

27th September 2017 - Winning Again!

Just a short post today, last night I went to the 3rd Annual Bradford Allotment Awards.  The awards involve all of allotment sites in the district and is well attended.  The evening starts with some food and a drink before the awards ceremony starts.  As part of the process people submit photographs of their plots and it's so nice to see all the different styles and how people have worked their plots.  

Last year I won the best container for my fairy garden; this year I submitted the living wreath with the purple and white pansies (see post from 29th April for how to make it).

I also submitted my bathroom sink, which I first blogged about on 2nd May when I used the rest of the pansies, they put on a lovely show through the spring but once it got a bit hotter I replanted it and was really happy with the results (even if I can't remember the names of the plants I put it in - doh!)

I am absolutely delighted to say that my living wreath won the best container award.  I am so pleased and really didn't expect it - especially after it was so simple in comparison to my fairy garden.  The judges described it as "simple elegance" which was just so lovely!

The trophy and certificate will go into my shed alongside the one from last year.

24th September 2017 - No Dig Gardening

As many of you know I've often talked about no-dig gardening but I don't know that I've ever really explained why I decided to use the method.  Charles Dowding is a pioneer in no-dig gardening and his website is very helpful.

https://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/no-dig-growing/why-no-dig/

There were a few things that really struck a chord with me.  First was that building fertility from the top and allowing the worms and bugs to draw it down is more natural than digging it in.  In the woods etc., organic matter always lands on top and is drawn down.  Secondly, I am gardening on clay and need to add plenty of organic matter; after only 2 seasons on this plot my soil is already significantly better and much easier to work.  Finally, whilst I enjoy working at the allotment, I find it very difficult to dig (especially in the clay) for any length of time and so the idea that I might be able to have a very nice plot without the need to dig was very appealing.

I've heard many people say that they can't have no-dig because their plots are full of couch grass, bindweed or horsetail.  When I took my plot it had all three (as well as the usual perennial suspects).  I used a strimmer to get it all cut down to the ground, marked out my beds and began.  I laid a good layer of cardboard at the base of my beds and then filled them with a mix of compost, manure and topsoil.  I did not dig into the beds before I covered them, I did not remove any roots or the top layer of grass.  I simply added on top of it.  In the first season I pulled up any perennial weeds that appeared; including the couch grass, bindweed and horsetail.  All of them poked their way through at some point.  The horsetail was particularly in my rotation beds.  As soon as I saw the slightest tip of it I pulled it up with as long a piece of root as I could manage.  The bindweed was making its way up through the raspberries and again, I just pulled it out as it appeared.  The couch grass appears all over the place and - up it comes!

Now at the end of the 2nd year, I get very little bindweed and horsetail.  The horsetail especially is very leggy and weedy.  I actually haven't seen any bindweed in my raspberries this year but it does appear from next door which is very frustrating.  The couch grass does still appear all over but I don't know if that's coming through from underneath or blowing in from other parts of the site.  

In terms of crops, I'm sure you've seen the photographs in the last few weeks showing my harvests.  I have been so happy, particularly with my root crops.  Interestingly Charles Dowding talks about root crops coming out cleaner and I've certainly seen that both with my carrots and potatoes this year. I mentioned the other week that Beechgrove Garden had done a dig / no-dig comparison and they found that the crops in the no-dig beds were significantly better in terms of yield.

http://www.beechgrove.co.uk/module_uploads/2/Factsheet_2017_-_Prog_18.pdf

Even though the results were extremely compelling, it did appear that George was recommending the no-dig mainly on the basis that if you can't dig any more you should try this.  I hope that my observations (and if you see the results from Beechgrove) that you'll realise that no-dig is better that digging for many many reasons and not just for people who are struggling with digging.  

5 year Crop Rotation Plan

I have updated my crop rotation because I now have a 5 bed plan and so I wanted to share it with you all.  I hope it's helpful.  If you are on a 4 bed rotation I have previously blogged about that (4th September 2016).  I hope this is helpful to you all.

 

 

17th August 2017 - Composting

As you've seen my blog posts have slowed down because frankly there's not much that I need to do and so there's not a lot to talk about but I will either post blogs or vlogs as things come up.

We are at the end of the season and so that means that I'm sorting out my compost and preparing my beds for things that I can plant now as well as which of the beds I need to tuck up for winter.  Last year there was one bed that I didn't cover and didn't plant anything in to and in the spring it was very weedy.  I won't be doing that again!  Back to the compost then - I have a 3 bins system which were made from old pallets.  I don't turn my compost regularly because there's simply too much of it.  What I do is fill up bin 1 throughout the season.  At the end of the season I empty bin 3 onto my beds and I move the contents of bin 2 into bin 3 and the contents of bin 1 into bin 2.  


One of the things I really do notice is that even at the end of the first season the stuff I've put in has broken down well.  I work hard to give my compost lots of variety of green and brown stuff.  I have blogged about making compost before so I won't go into it in any detail again but I will say that I do cold composting, which is essentially chuck it all in and let it do its thing.  I don't have formal layers so things just go in as they're needed.  I bring cereal boxes and egg boxes fairly regularly and kitchen waste that can't go into the wormery (such as onions and citrus fruits).  Tearing or screwing up paper and card creates air-pockets which also helps.  

Because I move the compost into the next bin at the end of the season it means that the very green stuff on top of bin 1 gets put to the bottom of bin 2 with all of the compost that's already started to breakdown piled on top of it, which again helps it to breakdown.  The compost in bin 2 could be used straight onto the garden at the end of this season (this is the stuff that was being put into bin 1 all season last year) but I like to let it breakdown further so that it's really really good stuff at the end of the 3rd year. 

As you can see the compost in the 3rd bin is very good.  I've been really pleased with how it's broken down and as I've said above it could be used now.  I did consider using it straight away and then giving my 3rd bin over to a leaf mould bin because I don't want to have an empty bin and I don't currently have anywhere to make leaf mould but I've stuck to my guns and I hope that means I'll have really good compost at the end of year 3.

I am a no-dig gardener and so adding organic matter is really important to the way I garden.  I don't actually add any more compost to my garden now than I did when I used to dig, the only difference is that I just leave it on top and let the worms do all the work for me instead of me digging it in.  

This year has been more successful in some ways than last year.  I've done well with the peas, I've done fantastically with cabbages in the polytunnel and I'm really pleased with how I've managed most of the crops in the polytunnel.  I've not done so well with the outdoor brassicas - I got one good cauliflower but the others went over.  The cabbage whites got to my sprouts and they need pulling out.  The swede look great; even though the leaves are now all gone.  I'm going to think about how I protect my outdoor brassicas better next year and I've already talked with Mr L about what he can build me that I can easily get into but that will fold up to be put away.  He pulled a face at me but you never know! The most successful thing was the sweetpeas which I really enjoyed; I'm letting them go over now and I will be using those seeds for next year.

My next task will be to plant onions and garlic to be ready in the spring and I'm going to get some spring brassicas planted so fingers crossed on them too.  I don't want to repeat last year where I didn't get up to the plot really at all during the winter.  I might not spend as much time there but I will be popping up and doing small jobs throughout the winter.

Until next time then - happy gardening!