When something in gardening is agreed by absolutely everyone to be a good thing it seems perverse to ask the question “why?”. I tend to the view that that is when it most needs to be asked. Composting and the multiple benefits of compost are among of the great untouchable sacred cows of gardening, especially…
Allotment & vegetable growing
On not digging.
In a few days time I shall be 65. Digging is either good exercise or hard work, depending on your perspective. Mine is that it is hard work and getting harder, so it seems to me that if I can get results as good without digging as with, why would I dig. Like many people,…
Allotment half term report.
Midsummer seems like an appropriate time to take stock. Most things have done well; I think I have the soil management side of things where I want it. My failures and problems are not soil related: cabbage root fly, not enough water and as of today, mice going for my peas. The one thing that…
Not quite successional cropping
My first plantings of cabbages, brussels sprouts and flower sprouts were wiped out by cabbage root fly, in spite of being treated with nematodes. The other brassicas that were sown a little later I potted on from their modules into 9cm pots and grew them a bit bigger before planting them out today. This time…
Allotment update – 9/5/2017
I decided to give onions from seed another go this year. I have grown the red onion 'Brunswick' and a Spanish variety called Liria, from real Seeds. Brunswick I pricked off singly into modules, the twenty to a half-tray size. Liria I did singly, in pairs and in threes. Yesterday I planted them all…
Allotment update 14/4/2017
I've put in several hours on my plot yesterday and today, strimming, weeding, sowing and planting. It still feels early in the season but I'm well on the way to a full house. I've said before that I have trouble getting seedlings going on my plot and start most things off in pots or cells.…
Allotment update – 3/4/2017
My purple curly kale has had it. Time to go. I chopped round the stems with the spade, leaving most of the roots in the ground and took them away to be shredded and added to the compost heap. I'd wanted to plant spuds in the space nearly a month ago but thought there were…
Allotment note 13/3/2017
There's very much a sense of the season accelerating; that transition from not enough to too much to do. This was my week, as far as veg goes. 5/3/17 Planted potatoes Charlotte and Kestrel. I planted Kestrel 18/3 lst year and they were fine so I should be OK. I've put more Kestrel in pots…
Allotment note 4/3/17
Sowed Onion 'Liria' in seed tray, on prop bench at 25C. Pricked off Leeks 'Musselburgh' sown 5/2 into 4L pot. Will plant out when bigger. This was an early sowing, will do another soonish. Pricked off Tomato 'Sungold' into 9cm pots. In Sylvamix peat free with 2.5g/L CRF added. Back on window ledge. Up…
Allotment note 3/3/17
Today I received a few packets of seed from The Real Seed Catalogue. I picked up on them on Charles Dowding's blog and wanted to try them out. Salads were a success last year in the sense that we ate almost all I grew and could have done with more, especially into autumn and winter.…
garden ruminations 