It's been a very dry April, the soil is now rock solid and splitting in big cracks that I would only expect to see at the height of summer. Hopefully adding all the compost will help with that - I've stopped sifting it through the bread crate and just started chucking it by the wheelbarrow-full onto the beds that need it. Sifting would be great in a perfect world but I'll just rake out the big bits instead.
First signs of carrot seedlings this week, they've actually come up faster than my radishes which is a surprise, but it's been too dry for small seeds to germinate properly. Also this month I've been using my liquid worm compost to fertilise my garlic and flowering broad beans. I've also had a big bonfire of old weeds and branches thanks to the dry spell, and collected a bucket full of wood ash which has been spread on my plot. Hopefully all these measures will lead to better crops this year.
Purple sprouting broccoli has now gone purple and started sprouting in abundance, except that half of it has been stripped off by birds. So I've had to construct a big netting pyramid to try and keep them off. I shant bother growing much in the way of brassicas in the future, there are just too many pests out to get them. I am already plotting what to grow next year, and intend to ditch a few of the boring potatoes and onions for something a bit more unusual, now I'm getting the hang of growing stuff.
Wednesday 28 April 2010
Tuesday 6 April 2010
Easter update
I've just had a week off work and managed to get loads done on the plot. Spring has definitely kicked in, as the weeds have started growing - neighbour John told me that's the best way to tell if it's time to plant you're own seeds.
The local farmer I mentioned in my previous post has turned up trumps. I phoned him on Monday morning and within the hour he turned up at the allotments in a big digger, with two tons of compost in the front bucket. A bargain at £25, it is composted green waste collected by the council and rotted down in huge, steaming silos on his farm.
It is a bit coarse, having bits of stick and branch in it, so I have been sorting it through an old shop bread crate before adding it to the beds. I've been adding about four wheelbarrow loads per bed, and I still think that I could probably add more, but that is about as much compost as I can stand to sort through the holes in a bread crate in one go.
The onions I planted have started to come up, and it turns out they are shallots. That's good because that is what I wanted to plant first. The rest of the onions went in last week, red and white.
This evening I planted my first potatoes of the year, ones that survived The Moog's efforts to eat them raw, called Blue Danube. I also dug over another bed in less than 30 minutes, with my azada purchased from Get Digging. It would have taken me at least a couple of hours with a spade, and I would have aggravated my back too - no such problems with the new tool. I have yet to decide what to call it; one of my neighbours called it an axe-hoe, which I think suits it a bit better than azada. Apparently there is an ex-Ghurka here who has one very similar, and he reputedly dug his whole plot barefoot using it, after turning down the loan of a British spade.
The local farmer I mentioned in my previous post has turned up trumps. I phoned him on Monday morning and within the hour he turned up at the allotments in a big digger, with two tons of compost in the front bucket. A bargain at £25, it is composted green waste collected by the council and rotted down in huge, steaming silos on his farm.
It is a bit coarse, having bits of stick and branch in it, so I have been sorting it through an old shop bread crate before adding it to the beds. I've been adding about four wheelbarrow loads per bed, and I still think that I could probably add more, but that is about as much compost as I can stand to sort through the holes in a bread crate in one go.
The onions I planted have started to come up, and it turns out they are shallots. That's good because that is what I wanted to plant first. The rest of the onions went in last week, red and white.
This evening I planted my first potatoes of the year, ones that survived The Moog's efforts to eat them raw, called Blue Danube. I also dug over another bed in less than 30 minutes, with my azada purchased from Get Digging. It would have taken me at least a couple of hours with a spade, and I would have aggravated my back too - no such problems with the new tool. I have yet to decide what to call it; one of my neighbours called it an axe-hoe, which I think suits it a bit better than azada. Apparently there is an ex-Ghurka here who has one very similar, and he reputedly dug his whole plot barefoot using it, after turning down the loan of a British spade.
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