29th March 2019 - Walking to the plot & clearing the fruit bed

This week I've been without a car and so I've walked to (or from) the allotment a couple of times.  It's exactly 4km (2.49 miles) from my gate to my house.  What this picture doesn't show you is that coming home it is about 60% uphill and they're really steep!  Once upon a time it wouldn't have

occurred to me to walk, I would have stayed at home or maybe got a taxi but since I lost some weight I've been feeling much more able to do more.  It gave me a great sense of achievement and, as you can see, it helped me to meet all of my Fitbit targets on Thursday!

I'm not sure that I'll keep it up once I get a car again but I'll continue to feel proud of myself for as long as it lasts!!

One of the other benefits of not having a car is that once I get up to the plot I have to stay!  I can't pop off to do something or stop off somewhere on the way to the plot and end up spending loads of time (and money) before I even get there.  As a result I have got so much done in quite a short space of time.

One of the main jobs I wanted to get done was to sort out the fruit bed in 85a.  The raspberry canes needed to be cut back in February and I'm always late doing it so I only just got around to doing it.  Last year I neglected that bed and all I can say is that it had gone a bit feral!  I didn't really take any fruit even from the bed, never mind weeding and mulching.  The raspberries had sent out millions of runners that were trying to take over the full 13' bed - argh!!!  

I forgot to take a before picture - doh! but on the right side I had 2 gooseberries that I've removed.  I decided to take them out because I have another big gooseberry and I couldn't get to any of them to prune (or harvest the fruit) and so I decided to take the 2 smallest ones out and give them away.  My arms look like I've been attacked by a mad cat (note to self - wear long sleeves when doing something with gooseberries) but it is worth it to sort this bed out!

In this space I have the remaining gooseberry, a blackcurrant and a blackberry.  At the end of the season I'm going to move them so that they're not all along one side and so that I can easily move between them.  Closest to the camera is where the raspberries will grow.  I cut it down to the ground (because this is autumn fruiting) and all I need to do is keep an eye out for any canes growing in places that I don't want them.

In 86a the spring flower bed is really coming alive.  There are 2 types of hyacinth at the front of the bed, the picture really doesn't do the purple justice, it is a really deep colour and so unusual.  The daffodils are also starting to bud up but the idea of this bed was to use it as a crop and so far there aren't enough buds for me to harvest them for the house.  I will keep an eye on them but it looks like I'm going to have to enjoy them at the plot.

I've also started to prepare the bed for the asparagus.  I had to weed it and unfortunately it has marestail growing in it.  All of the beds in that plot are going to suffer with marestail and bindweed so I'm just going to have to manage it.  As you know I don't dig (and it's not even worth trying to dig marestail out because the roots go so deep).  My main worry about the marestail is that it will be difficult to pull up when the asparagus starts growing because they can look similar to start with and I don't want to be pulling up the asparagus tips!

In case you were wondering, I'm currently between jobs and so rather than just going to the plot at the weekends I'm being able to get there in the week.  You might therefore see some additional updates from me in between the normal posts (you might not as I'm also busy with a job search).

Until next time...
Happy Gardening x

24th March 2019 - Wildlife and hard work

On 17th February I posted about cleaning out my pond (link below).  I wanted to get it all done before the frogs started mating and before there was any spawn/tadpoles in the water.  For the last couple of weeks the water has still been a bit murky but it's been clearing.  When I arrived this weekend the water was clear.

http://tinyurl.com/y6gkg93b

I could see the lily at the bottom of the pond really well and so I decided to have a proper look.  One of the first things I noticed is that there seemed to be some frog spawn at the bottom of the pond.  I thought it was weird because frogs normally lay their eggs on the surface.  I could clearly see 2 frogs at the bottom of the pond (against the side) and then I noticed a newt; I've seen 4 frogs and 2 newts so it seems like I have a very healthy pond.  I think they're smooth newts (also known as a common newt) and I'm hoping the spawn I can see at the bottom of the pond is from them.

In addition to finding the newt I also found 8 plants that had been dumped into the compost.  I had a good look at them and they seemed healthy so I decided to bring them to be re-potted.  I think it's hebe but I'm not sure what type.  I've given them a good soak and feed and I'll keep an eye on them.  I know that people throw plants out that are sick or diseased but I would hope they wouldn't just put them into the public compost (although I wouldn't put money on that).  I do know that the people who have thrown them out often throw out perfectly good plants and so I'm not too worried about them infecting any of my other plants, they are being kept away from similar plants to be on the safe side though!

In addition to rescuing plants I've been busy weeding the beds and making a start on weeding the paths.  Last year I neglected the paths and they're pretty bad; I filled a bucket with weeds from 1 path and 1 bed and neither were particularly bad!  I really want to get all of it sorted as a priority so that as I move on to 86a or other areas of the 85a I don't have to worry about the weeds self seeding all over the place.

The polytunnel has been busy too.  I had to prune off a lot of leaves from the lemon tree because they had been touched by frost.  I thought taking it into the polytunnel would protect it enough but it's a lesson learnt that I'll need to take it in and also protect it with extra fleece.  I've put some fleece on it now because the temperatures are still getting down to freezing and even though I've pruned it, some of the remaining leaves had started to curl so I decided to protect it.

The peach tree is in blossom, I'm keeping it in the polytunnel to protect it from peach curl but I'm going to have to take a paintbrush and manually pollinate it because I didn't do it last year and I didn't get any fruit.  I've also got various bits and pieces that are starting to bud.  I bought an automatic watering system that is battery operated.  Each system has 10 spouts and you can set the time that it waters and for how long.  I've dropped it into the big watering can and it's watering all of the big plants for 1 minute a day.  I don't think that's long enough so I need to decide how long or how many times it needs to be done.  It does give me a little bit of security for when the weather gets better and when I can't get up every day to water.  

One of the other plot holders put a note onto our Facebook page asking if anyone wanted some gravel.  I have the car park matting that I put under my shed and that I was going to use as a base for the greenhouse.  It works best if it's filled with gravel so I was delighted to get some for free.  When I started chatting with the lady who had it she said she also had some slabs that her neighbour was trying to get rid of. 

Thankfully Mr L came to help me, because it was hard work, they were really heavy but I'm so happy to have them.  We managed to get 30 slabs as a base for the greenhouse and 6 bags of gravel.  I can use the gravel either inside the greenhouse or in the matting as I'd planned, but as a seating area in front of the shed instead of for the greenhouse.

The last job I did this weekend was plant 4 fruit trees in pots.  The plan is to eventually put them into 86a but because the beds aren't ready yet I've put them into pots.  I've got apple, pear, plum and cherry; I've always wanted to have fruit trees on my plot but because I didn't think about it when I was designing 85a and so I didn't have places for them.  The trees are on dwarfing root stock and they will be okay in these pots for at least a couple of years but ultimately I'm planning on planting them in the ground.  Have anyone else had any success growing fruit trees in pots?

Until next time...
Happy Gardening x

3rd March 2019 - What do you put in the bed when you harvest winter onions?

In the summer when everyone harvests their winter onion social media is full of people asking what they should put in their beds now that the onions have been harvested.  Of course you can plant brassica's or legumes which would be next on the rotation but I plant onions!  My family eat a lot of onions and I can never grow enough but one of the ways I try is by growing the all year round.  

In order to grow onions all year I have to be organised.  In February I plant my sets into modules; today I planted 120 sets and I still have another 2 bags of sets to plant which should be at least another 240 sets.  At the moment they're in the polytunnel but I will move them outside when I do the rest of them.  One of the things to remember even when planting in modules is to protect them from pigeons!

I have found that onions are quite happy to be transplanted from modules into their growing position; you don't need to disturb the roots too much when you transfer them but even if the roots are disturbed the onions still grow well.  

So, if you're thinking about what you're going to put into the winter onion beds, it's worth thinking about preparing some more onions to go in when you have harvested.

Edit:  I have been asked about crop rotation and specifically been told that you can't plant summer onions in the bed that you grew winter onions because of onion root fly.  I do rotate my crops but honestly the distance of the beds would actually have very little affect on the root fly maggot which can migrate quite a long way from where it hatched to your onions.  You can grow onions in a bed for a full year before rotating to another bed. If your soil can get to 35°C or more then that will kill the pupae but that's only likely in a hot bed or compost bin.  Don't plant bright yellow plants near your onions, because the adult fly are attracted to the colour and often lay their eggs at the base of yellow plants.  Because the flies are attracted to bright yellow colours you can buy yellow sticky cards that the fly is attracted to and the  stick to; you should change the traps twice weekly and it's a good idea to record changes in fly activity so that you can think about nematodes for future years.

In addition to the onions I have made a start sowing beetroot.  As you know I'm not great at growing things from seeds but I'm trying something new this year.  First I'm only sowing a small number at a time; I'll be waiting for the first lot to germinate before I sow any more and then I'll do no more than 10 seeds.

I'm also sowing them into the coir expanding biscuits.  I put half of them into the tray to expand last week but didn't have time to sow before I had to leave because Middle L cut his foot and I had to take him to the hospital.  They therefore had nearly a week to fully expand (they only really need 24 hours!) I put 8 seeds into the little dips and then I filled the rest of the trays with more biscuits to expand.

Last week I planted my leeks into the roots bed and so the root trainers were freed up.  I have quite a lot of sweet peas that I want to grow this year so I have used the root trainers for them and I'm also saving toilet roll middles to grow some more.  

I've also noticed that my lemon tree is not very happy, from reading it seems like it has been too cold, the best way to deal with it is to remove the leaves and give it a feed.  I'm a bit worried about removing all of the leaves but I'll give it a feed and cover it with fleece and see how it goes; hopefully it will recover and I will have to remember to fleece it at the end of summer this year.

Until next time
Happy Gardening x

25th February 2019 - Warmest February on record

This time last year it was snowing and this year it has been the warmest February day on record!  This weekend I was determined to make a dint in my to-do list but I was slowed down on Saturday by a chest infection (it hurt to breathe).

Last week I cleaned out the pond; I also bought some 'sludge bomb' that you drop into the pond and it effectively eats all the excess sludge.  Once I got up there this weekend though, I decided that it didn't need it.  While the water is still a little murky I could see the lily at the bottom of the pond and so I'm going to leave it for now and see how it goes.  The frogs have already started to sing to each other so I'm hoping to see some frog spawn pretty soon and I obviously don't want to mess with the pond once the frogs start spawning.  I can keep the sludge bomb for the end of the season when I want to clear the pond again.

I had some leeks in root trainers over the winter.  I didn't have room for them in the onion bed but I didn't want them to die off and I thought the root trainers would be a good way to keep them healthy while I was waiting for a bed to be ready for them to go into.  I have planted them into the bed that I'm planning to put the carrots into; leeks are a good companion plant for carrots because they're supposed to help to mask the smell of the carrots from the root fly.

I also planted them very deep, which is supposed to help to blanch them; I'm looking at other ways to continue to blanch the stalks as they grown,  You can earth them up, much like potatoes, with additional soil as they grow or you can use cardboard/paper tied around the stalks when they're big enough.  I am saving toilet rolls for the job and I think I can even pop them over in anticipation of the leeks growing big enough.

I fixed the flag this weekend as well, I love having my England flag flying although it does have a tendency to tangle around the arbour but over the winter it was pulled off of the post and so I needed to take it down and fix it back again.  I don't have a proper flag post; I use an old curtain rail and I've stapled the flag to it but it does the job.

I had 3 tree peony's that were delivered as bare root plants and they've just been sitting in the shed for a week.  I wanted to get them potted up this weekend but I needed some more compost first.  As ever I made up my normal mix of compost, root booster and all season feed.  I didn't have any grit or water retaining gel so I didn't include those but I did top dress it with some moss which should help keep the moisture in the pots.  The pots smaller than they will eventually end up in but until I decide whether they'll be in pots or in the ground (or even at the allotment or house) the pots are a good size to get them established and will probably be fine in there for the whole season, if not longer.  They eventually grow up to around 5' tall and make a really lovely statement piece in the garden.

When I picked up the bags of compost I bought some primula's for the flower bed next to the shed in 85a, I enjoy having this area as a flower bed, it creates a nice space around the sitting area in front of the shed.  One of the things I think I'd like to do this year is clear the area in front of the shed and make a bigger seating area.  I think I'll need to move the bird feeder to do that but if I have enough matting after using it for the greenhouse, then I think it will be the perfect thing to use to extend out from the flags.

Some of the jobs I have planned for this year include clearing behind the compost bins; I want to cover the area with membrane to reduce the nettles and brambles that grow in that area.  Once it is clear I may even be able to put the tree peony's back there or even a fruit tree.  

I have no idea how long this nice weather is going to last but I will certainly be making the most of it while it's here and so fingers crossed I can get more done.

Until next time
Happy Gardening x

17th February 2019 - Cleaning the Pond

I love my pond, it was one of the first things I planned to put into my allotment when I got 85a, Mr L bought me it for my birthday and then installed it as a surprise while I was away with work.  When I first got it the water went a pea green colour and after trying a few things I got some daphnea from my neighbour which completely cleared it and has kept it clear.

I have a lovely marginal grass, a bullrush type plant, a waterlily and an iris (which has never flowered).  Last year I dropped a rock into the pond and while trying to fish it out again I noted 2 things.  The first was that the bottom of the pond had quite a lot of silt and dirt and the second was that there were little leech like creatures in that silt that managed to attach themselves to me (yuck!)

I'm pretty sure I've talked about the pond before but just as a recap, my pond does not have fish in it; it is solely a wildlife pond and I've been lucky enough to have both frogs and newts use it.  I also have seen dragonflies and various insects.  I've had birds and hedgehogs come for a drink and since installing the pond I have seen hardly any full sized slugs on my plot at all.

I genuinely believe that having a pond, if you have room, is the single most beneficial thing you can do for your garden and allotment.

And so to this weekend, I wanted to clear the pond before the frogs started spawning because I knew that once that started it would be another year before I could get it done.  I started by taking all of the plants out on Saturday and removing the mini fountain.  I genuinely couldn't believe how much they had spread.  The grass in the picture above was out of it's pot and the roots where as big as the plant above ground and it was really heavy (it actually turned out that it had grown around a brick that's I'd stood it on!!)  One of the things that's really important when you're taking anything out of the pond is putting it on the side to allow anything that needs to be in the water to make their way back in.  That was one of the reasons I wanted to get the plants out first because if there's any critters hiding that's where they'd be.

On Sunday I went down to the garden centre and got a pair of gloves so that I could get my hands into the pond without getting eaten by the bugs!  I started by taking out the bricks that I'd used to stand plants on and a terracotta pot that I'd used to stand the fountain on.  I also bought a mini rubble tub to put the stuff in that I pulled out of the pond.  

I then laid on my stomach and reached into the pond and scooped up all of the silt and dropped it straight into the tub.  There were 2 frogs in the pond who started to pop up and try to get away from me but of course because I had taken all the plants out they had nowhere to hide!  I managed to scoop them out with the net and pop them on the side.  I wasn't able to get all the silt out because I couldn't reach all the way to middle but it is definitely better than it was.

I needed to sort out all of the plants, as I've mentioned they had really spread.  I have no idea if what I've done is ok or not but I couldn't leave them as they were.  I essentially hacked away at them with my secateurs; I snipped off all of the roots that had grown outside of the pot and I removed any excess growth as well so that the roots I had left could support the plant.  I managed to split the grass although I still had to throw away more than I kept.  I had to do the same with the iris, bullrush and waterlily.  I re-potted the iris and waterlily into bigger pots partly so they had more room to grow but also because both of them had managed to grow sideways and so I wanted to straighten them up.

In the picture you can see that all of the stuff I pulled out of the pond I've left on the side and I weighted down the bucket to allow anything in there to climb back into the pond without it all ending up all over the place (or back in the pond!).  The water is still like a mud bath but one it settles I'm hoping it will clear again.  I do realise the irony of wanting everything to settle when I was trying to get it out but I think that unless I'm prepared to completely empty and scrub it I will always have to put up with some silt in the bottom of the pond; I think I'm going to try and clear it like this once a year to avoid it getting this bad again.

I do want to get another solar fountain and so that will be my next job once everything settles, I've also looked at some stuff to drop in the pond that will allegedly clear sludge so I might try that in the summer (it apparently works better when it's warm).

Until next time
Happy Gardening x

27th January 2019 - Countdown to Spring

Is anyone else seriously counting down the days until spring?  I hate the winter and being cold - in a past life I think I must have been something that hibernated or I lived in a hot country :-D

Over the last couple of weeks I've started looking at what I want to grow next season, especially as I have a lot more space now.  I have always wanted to grow asparagus and so I've ordered some for one of the new beds in 86a.  I got them from Groupon but they've been delivered from Hayloft .  I bought 18 crowns - 6 new greenic (early season), 6 guelph millenium (mid season) and 6 gijnlim (late season) they cost £13.98 (22% off) plus £1.99 delivery; which I think is really reasonable.  The problem I have is that I can't plant them until March and so now I need to work out how to keep them until then - my best option at the moment (I think) is to keep them in the boot of the car where they'll be cool and dry and not available for the mice to eat them.  I will keep you posted on my progress.  

I can't remember if I've previously mentioned that I keep a bullet journal.  If you've never heard of bullet journals you can check out the original concept at bulletjournal.com or look on Pintrest and Instagram for bullet journal inspirations.  My journal includes everything I need for my day to day life and for me, it's about having everything in one place so that I'm not looking for my to-do lists in one place and my calendar in another.  I have started my to-do list for this year and as you can see it's already starting to mount up!  I did a few jobs before I did the list though so it's not as long as it could have been.  

I did spend a little bit of time up at the plot this weekend (for the first time since Christmas); I got 2 blueberry plants from Groupon a couple of weeks ago.  They're only small, in 9" pots, so I wanted to re-pot them into slightly bigger pots and make sure that they're in ericaceous compost with root booster.  When I create the beds in 86a I am going to have one with acidic soil for the blueberries,  I also have a rhododendron that I might pop in that same bed.  I kept the pines from the Christmas tree and I'll use them as a mulch for this bed.

I've also arranged to have 2 posts for the new gate that I need to pick up from another plot holder.  I will need to dig holes for the new posts (although I'm hoping to persuade Mr L to help me with that one!) and the gate already has all the hardware that I need to be able to hang it as soon as the posts are ready.  The gate currently has a number 3 worked into the metalwork and so I'm going to get something to cover it and then that is where I'll put my plot number.

The other job I got done this weekend was to begin cleaning the bird feeders.  It's important to clean them at least once a year to help keep the birds healthy.  One of the feeders had got clogged up and so it desperately needed to be cleaned.  The rest I need to clean over the coming weeks so that as the birds are beginning to feed their babies the feeders are clean for them.

At this time of year it is all about planning and making sure I'm ready when spring comes.  I will be very busy trying to get 86a fully productive; I'm super excited about the asparagus bed and the blueberries and I can't wait to get started again (roll on spring!)

Until next time
Happy Gardening x

Metaldehyde slug pellets banned from Spring 2020

You may have heard the news that the traditional blue slug pellets have been banned from Spring 2019.  DEFRA say "metaldehyde poses an unacceptable risk to birds and mammals."  

Sales will stop in Summer 2019 (which I don't understand if this ban is in place from spring!)  and then a further 12 months will be allowed for supplies to be used up.  Only those using permanent greenhouses will be permitted to continue to use the metaldehyde pellets where birds cannot easily get them.  This in itself seems very short sighted given that slugs and snails will likely leave the greenhouse after consuming the pellets and then potentially poison wildlife.

Mr Gove said, "I recognise that significant effort has been put into encouraging growers and gardeners to use this pesticide responsibly by the Metaldehyde Stewardship Group.  However, the advice is clear that the risks to wildlife are simply too great - and we must all play our part in helping to protect the environment.  I encourage companies and growers to look at the alternatives, such as ferric phosphate, which is authorised and does not carry similar risks."

Metaldehyde is without doubt toxic to wildlife; hedgehogs, amphibians and birds have all be poisoned by eating slugs and snails that have eaten the pellets, or have eaten the pellets themselves.  The problem of course is that while the blue pellets do reduce the slugs and snails if they, in turn, poison the other wildlife then there are less predators for the slugs and snails, which let their numbers increase.  It is a vicious cycle that will now hopefully be broken.

If you want to use other barriers then growlikegrandad.co.uk has suggested the following methods.  He points out that using egg shells is not a good idea because the snails eat the shells and it helps to strengthen their own shells against predators! 

• A targeted approach to watering, to the bases of plants and not all the bed areas in between them, don't make slugs and snails a gift of damp soil which is easier to travel across 
• Wood chip paths dramatically reduce slug and snail numbers and damage at Grow Like Grandad's allotment.  He receives free deliveries from local tree surgeons which helps to keep costs down.  If your plot doesn't have free wood chip ask your committee to phone a few local arboriculture firms, one will usually be glad of having somewhere to drop off their wood chip.
• Place some old scaffold boards on the ground near your crops and make a habit of lifting those every few days and destroying the slugs you find hiding beneath.
• Make a pond and encourage frogs and toads into your allotment or garden, Grow Like Grandad has an army of toads now (transported from home) and in 2018 he found only a handful of slugs and snails at the plot in the entire year (the garden was a different matter!)

My personal choice for trying to reduce the slugs and snails was to put a pond into 85a (I'm still debating doing this in 86a).  I also have a  hedgehog house, a wood pile and a wild bird feeding station; all of these encourage the local wildlife into my plot to eat the slugs and snails.  In areas of the plot that I have barriers to prevent wildlife (brassicas under enviromesh and in the polytunnel) I sparingly use ferric phosphate pellets (also known as iron pellets).

I use Richard Jackson's slug and snail pellets from QVC.  These pellets also have some Flower Power in them so that as they break down they add nutrients to your soil.  I'm sure there will continue to be a debate about whether the ferric phosphate is safe but I'm not aware of any studies that say these pellets are damaging to the wildlife; although there are comments about the iron in the pellets being damaging to the soil structure, which is why it's so important to use sparing, as per the instructions.  You don't actually need to lay hundreds of them anyway; just 2 or 3 around a plant is more than enough to control the few slugs and snails that get away from the natural predators.

I am personally delighted with the news and wanted to share it with you all, although I'm sure many of you had already heard.  I strongly believe the the hedgehog population particularly will benefit from this ban.

Until next time - Happy Gardening x