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…
No dig growing
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.…
Allotment stuff, new season.
It being neither freezing nor raining I just spent a few hours weeding on my allotment. My plot is very weedy and I was reflecting on that unpalatable fact while I worked. Apart from brassicas and roots, I don't have much on the plot at this time of year, so there is a lot of…
Allotment – taking stock
It being September, almost the end of the growing season, it seems natural to take stock of how that growing season has gone. This has been my first year of not digging and my results have been sufficiently good to attract the attention of my neighbouring plotholders. My crops have on average been at least…
Allotment update
No dig veg growing throws up the odd dilemma, like do I or do I not earth up my spuds. I chose to do so, but not to the extent that everyone else has done theirs. Having made and carried out the decision, it seems a bit late to turn to Charles Dowding's book and…
garden ruminations 