...and it started on the first pull

...and it started on the first pull.

Sounds so much like a joke punchline, doesn't it, but I am referring to my trusty allotment lawnmower, which burst into spluttering life the first time I pulled the cord this weekend.

I actually made three visits to the plot in as many days, some accompanied by sunshine, and some by hail showers. Buoyed by a couple of weeks of settled and warm spring weather I had intended to get my main onion sets in the ground, but as the weather has now turned cold again I settled for a mixture of jobs. This is the first real activity on the plot since last year when I actually had time to dig over about half the plot in time for winter. The winter rains have done their bit and the soil is quite workable now.

This spring has been much warmer than last year, so one of the first jobs had to be to get the mower out and tame the grass.Getting rid of some of the paths and raised bed borders has done wonders for my time-efficiency and it is much easier to keep on top of what needs doing when you don't have to spend ages on silly unproductive jobs like mowing. I suppose there is a small benefit to mowing, apart from keeping the place neat and accessible, it means my compost heap gets a nice big nitrogen fix.

After the grass, I also weeded my overwintering onions which were being slowly mugged by weeds, mostly grass and speedwell at this time of year, although dandelions have made remarkable progress on some other parts of the plot. I will need to weed the garlic soon as well, which has put on some fairly good growth with all the bulbs I planted coming up well. The onions are looking a little weedy in comparison, they could both do with a high potash feed to give them a boost. This phrase sounds like I know what I am talking about after all these years, doesn't it, but I don't  know really what makes a high-potash feed; I will have to go to the garden centre and look at the labels.

I did start to prepare some ground for the onions, this was hard work and has made the plot start to look loved again, at least in one corner. I didn't rush to get them in the ground, as I said above I'm fairly relaxed about the timing when the weather is not reliably warm. Dismantling my bed system has also made me dither a bit more about where to put things so I may need to draw up another plan soon. Otherwise I will start at one corner and put things in as they become ready - a strategy which seems to work. All I do is try to avoid putting the same crop in the same bed two years running.

Main crop potatoes have been selected, King Edward this year to make a change. An easily available variety but they must be popular for a reason, methinks. They are chitting at home in the spare room and will not be put in the ground too early either. Easter is late this year so I may not wait that long, but I won't hurry them. They will have all year to catch up. Besides, it will take me a while to prepare all the ground; I still don't know where I'm going to put them.

Time for an update

One of the strange things about 2013 so far is that the weather has been very poor, but I have actually been able to keep up with jobs better than I usually do. I think it is partly because the very cold weather has stopped weeds taking over, as well as delaying planting times for my own crops. Added to this, I made a concerted effort to reduce the amount of infrastructure - paths, raised borders etc. and the lack of maintenance has left me time to carry on with more important jobs. I'm also getting much better at focusing my time on being productive; every time I visit the plot I set myself some goals and usually achieve them.

Things are progressing so well I've found I needed to scribble a plan for the first time in a few years. I usually carry it all in my head but I felt a plan was in order this week as I began to run out of space. Regular visitors to this blog will note the technicolour computer drawings of 2007-08 are long gone! We're now in back-of-an-envelope territory and I think I feel better for it.

Allotment plan, 2013

The plan shows where I've started to remove the smaller beds for the potatoes, onions etc and move to an open-plan, more traditional dug-ground system. This means less work maintaining paths and more growing space. I use scaffold planks to walk on the soil between the rows instead. The beds shown with a slightly heavier border are the ones that are not planted yet. The top of the plot is quite shady, so vegetable growing is concentrated on the lower side and the less productive areas are used for things that are less dependent on conditions. I plan to get rid of the two lower strawberry beds and move younger plants further up the plot after they finish fruiting.

Progress

Progress is being made on my 2010 plans. In the photo below, you can see:
Front right, garlic, planted using a sort of semi 'no dig' method. More on that later. Behind that, new location for the compost heap. Further behind that, the area to be used for more compost, & maybe my storage chest; in front of the shed, I will just lay to grass for now (whilst looking at this area try not to look at John's pristine plot next door. I find it helps to cover one eye). Middle left, you can just see this year's overwintered broad beans, and just in frame on the front left, is the cage for my purple sprouting broccoli, which at the present time is neither purple nor sprouting.

Plotting changes

I think it is fair to say I'm not the only person who is fed up with the snow. I've been itching to get out on the plot and do something, and have been using the cold snap to do some head-scratching, ably assisted by the commonsense-rich Mrs Moog Keeper.

I had a fairly poor season last year, with swede, radish, peas, potatoes and carrots all doing badly. Mrs Moog Keeper was the first to spot the obvious dividing line, with one half of the plot doing well and the other badly. I think there are two explanations, both equally plausible. These are: (a) it has never really been worked very much at all, the natural soil is poor and everyone who's used it in the past has given up; or (b) it has been over-worked, the soil is exhausted of nutrients and there is a build-up of pests and diseases. I think this second explanation is more likely, and it makes me feel better, because it means it's not my fault.

To combat this poor performance we've decided to have a bit of a shuffle around. The poorest beds will become, variously, a storage area, compost heap, and rough lawn; this will then free up some space on the other side of the plot which I haven't worked before. Time will tell if the soil under there is any good. It will also mean I concentrate my efforts on the more productive side of the plot, with the aim of improving both crop yields and morale in equal measures.

Moog thinks all this is an excellent idea, but then, as we know, Moogs can't think. He's probably a bit spaced out from eating raw potatoes, anyway.

2010 plans

I've been asked what I'm growing this year and I can never remember, so here for the delight of my readers but largely for my own memory, are my plans for 2010.

1. Carrots. I had problems with carrot fly in 2009, virtually all my carrots were ruined, so I've left spaces to companion-plant in between my rows of garlic, as I did in my first year. I have also bought Flyaway, the variety I had success with in 2008.

2. Coriander, I will try growing this again, because we use a lot, but it seems to go to seed almost before you get any useable leaves. I think it needs more sunshine than I was able to supply last year.

3. Beans, I am sticking with my favourite Cobra French beans. I have also been promised some runner bean seeds by neighbour John, who is now back from his hernia operation and has reclaimed his plot from the weeds. Again these didn't perform so well in 2009 so I have been slowly, slowly preparing the bean bed by digging fresh kitchen waste and horse manure into a trench and then filling it in.

3. Beetroot, I am going to try a variety called Detroit 6, which are supposed to be better than the variety I grew last year. I was quite pleased with what I grew despite the beets only getting to about golf ball size.

4. Courgettes, you can always rely on these. They seem to produce loads of fruit, even if they get mildew. I'm going to grow a variety called Fender F1, and avoid the yellow ball type we grew last year, because although they were OK they mostly went to waste because they spoiled really quickly after picking. I think there was also some hybrid pollenation which caused some wierd-looking and unusable half green, half yellow fruits.

5. Leeks, these will be the same variety as last year, Porvite, and they'll be planted this week indoors, time permitting.

6. Parsnips. I love roast parsnips but haven't really had good specimens yet, so I'm going to put the variety Gladiator F1 in my favourite, most productive bed, which happily sits at the front of my plot where everyone can see it.

7. Onions. Nothing exciting but a staple in the kitchen: Red (Red Baron) White (Santero) and Shallots (Picasso) all on order from Thompson & Morgan. Not the fastest of suppliers but a good range and it's easy to use their website.

8. Radish. I'll stick some of these in wherever I can. Last year the leaves were decimated by flea beatle (again) and slugs took bites out of the actual radishes, rendering most of them useless, but I'll give them a go because they come up fairly easily and I might get lucky.

9. Peas. Apart from the very first harvest (about 1 meal worth) most of these were riddled with pea moth larvae in 2009, but I am going to try Kelvedon Wonder again, this time paying better attention to the dates you're supposed to avoid to steer clear of moths.

10. Pumpkins . A Halloween variety, for fun. Grew some very small but delicious green pumkins last year and they stored for ages, which is a big positive as far as we're concerned, you don't have to eat them all at once.

11. Squash We had great success by just planting seeds from a supermarket-bought squash, so this year we're going to try a proper British variety, Avalon.

12. Chard. I have now grown this two years running and it grows slowly, but nothing seems to attack it, so it is a good standby to add colour to a stir fry, or just braised with garlic and served on the side of a roast. Also it looks smashing on the plot with its big glossy leaves.

And finally...
13. Potatoes.. Again, a really disappointing harvest last year, various diseases and mystery problems, so I'm going for slightly different varieties this year - Cara, and Sarpo Axona, both supposed to be disease resistant, and similar to the Sarpo Mira I have grown for the last couple of years. Fingers crossed it won't be wasted effort this year.

So, there you have it. This little lot will join the garlic and broad beans that I planted in the autumn. Hope my bad back buggers off and lets me prepare the ground properly.

Plan update

Moog thought I'd better update the plan, as most of it went out of the window as soon as I'd drawn it up.

Here's what's currently on my plot:

Plan number 1

Now I know where my beds are I've measured them out and done a rough plan of where things are going to go. Surprising how quickly the space gets used up. I may halve some of the beds, Otherwise I'll be over-run with one crop and won't have room for anything else; we'll see how much time I've got! I'm also going to think about successional planting, so that everything doesn't come to maturity on the same day.