Pricking out and sowing........................

Raining again this morning, but I still needed to go to the allotment and get some work done in the greenhouses. Everything seems to be doing well but I am rapidly running out of space. I pricked out 12 Celeriac and 20 Brussels Sprout seedlings and sowed my Sweetcorn, Climbing French Beans (Blue Lake), Red Cabbage (Red Drumhead) and two types of Cauliflower, (Snowball) which is a miniature type and (Green Trevi) which as the name suggests has green curds.

It did stop raining and the sun came out for a short while and I toyed with the idea of planting out my main crop onions but I found the ground to be too wet so they will have to be done another day.

Hangman!

After the long and harsh winter I was pleased to find that some of the cauliflowers were ready to be harvested. But within the next week or two if I'm really lucky the rest of them will be ready too. It is obvious I have sown far to many again. Cauliflowers don't stand well in the ground. They can be looking fine one day and go over the next. I tried to freeze my surplus last year, but was not to happy with the results. So I was interested to hear from one of the old timers at the allotment that you can store cauliflowers by hanging the whole thing up side down, roots and all in your shed and they should last an extra couple of weeks. Its got to be worth a try! From allotmenteer to Hangman, I wasn't expecting that!.

Can I pick some now?

My Rhubarb "Timpperly Early" is looking geat, will look even better as it comes out of the oven baked with ginger and honey, cant wait, can I pick some now?

The Dig Continues!...................

I had a few hours down on the allotment yesterday. After all the rain we have had, I thought I would make the most of the dry weather although it was a bit on the blustery side and very cold with it, I needed to get some more digging done plot 29b. I have only got one area left to dig but on the plot, but it seems to be the worst bit. As I mentioned in a earlier post the half plot I took on was used as a dumping ground by my very nice neighbours (tongue in cheek) crap. It has been buried with mounds of soil and engulfed by weeds. Not only am I battling with "Chooch grass " roots and "Docks" I have to deal with carpet, plastic bags, bricks and coke to say just a few. But I persevered on ,and hopefully It wont be long before I manage to bet it how I want it. I intend to use it for my late potatoes thus leaving me the space on plot 36 to fill with other lovely produce.

Having the two plots I came up with idea, whether it will work or not is a different matter, but I thought that once all the spuds had been harvested I could use plot 29b for all my winter crops, so that would leave plot 36 clear once all the summer produce had been harvested. I could then dig all of the plot, add manure etc with out having to work around things such as the spring and winter cabbage, cauliflowers and Japanese onions. We will have to see how it works out, Watch this space!

"Cooch Grass" Horrible stuff.

Install A "Bee Hotel"

As part of a nationwide effort to protect our bee population, I have just fitted a "Bee Hotel" to the side of my shed. There are apparently 250 species of bees in this country many of which are in decline due to habitat loss, pesticides and the recent wet summers we have experienced. Not all bees and wasps live together in hives or swarms some are solitary creatures and these are the ones that will be attracted to this kind of habitat. Bee are important and play a vital role in pollinating our fruit and vegetables so I believe we should all make an effort to encourage them into our gardens and allotments.
As well as bees, they are also a ideal habitat for Ladybirds and Hover flies which is a bonus. All this for a mere £4 from "Morrison's"........Bargain!

Lost Dahlias..........

I was concerned that my Dahlia tubers in the greenhouse had not sent up any new growth so I inspected the tubers and found that they had all rotted. After seeking advice from a fellow a plot holder who incidentally has around 40 years experience growing and showing Dahlias, he told me that he suspected that the tubers had retained a lot of water and that I had not dried them out sufficiently in autumn. All that time and effort wasted as well as the expense of all the paraffin I had to buy through the winter to heat the greenhouse, I could have bought 10 times the amount of new tubers from a garden centre and still have been in profit. At least I can say I have had a go.

Plot 36 Ready.....................

Its been a while since I last updated this blog, its been manic with one thing and another, never seems to be enough hours in the day.
With the exception of a few winter cabbages and cauliflowers still in the ground, plot 36 is now ready to be planted out with this years crops. Now the allotment has had a new delivery of woodchip, the only outstanding job is to finish off the last few paths which hopefully I will complete early next week.














The Cauliflowers are not brilliant but considering the harsh winter we have had they are not that bad












Elsewhere on the plot, the garlic is coming on well, and I should get a good harvest when they are ready. The shallot sets are in. I am growing two types this year "Golden Gourmet" and "Red Sun" both of which were started off in modular trays.
In the greenhouse I have Banana Shallots doing well and will need pricking out soon."Brunswick" & Hispi Cabbages, "Candid Charm" Cauliflower and "Ironman" Calabrese have all been pricked out and potted on and will soon be transferred to the cold frames. Also in the greenhouse I have sown, Tomatoes, Sprouts, Lettuce, Chillis, Cucumbers, Courgettes, and some Summer Squashes.

Worlds Hottest Chilli.....................

Had a couple of hours in the greenhouse this afternoon and managed to sow some seeds. As well as some Aubergines and Gherkins I also sowed some chilli seeds.

I am growing a variety called "Bhut Jolokia" or the "Naga Ghost Chilli" which has been officially recognised as the worlds hottest chilli. Extensively cultivated in the Assam region of India is believed to measure 1.001.304 scoville heat units (SHU) which believe me is "Bloody Hot!" It even comes with a warning on the seed packet which stresses extreme caution when handling and eating.

I am looking forward to try them just to see if the live up to their reputation.

Bad Start To The Day........

Got to the allotment this morning to be greeted by a fellow plot holder bearing bad news. A number of sheds, 5 in total had been broken into during the night. Although all the locks had been forcefully removed and access gained strangely nothing seems to have been taken from any of the sheds.
Checking over my two sheds there seemed to be no signs of any tampering, but I did find my greenhouse door wide open which seemed strange because my heater was on and I don't think I would have left it open myself, but everything seemed to be in its place so I am thinking it must have been a senior moment on my part.
After standing around talking for about an hour I thought it was about time I got some work done. I had arranged to use the allotments rotavator on the rear of plot 36, but before I could use it it needed a bit of a service as it wouldn't start due to standing idle for many months. But after the spark plug was cleaned, fresh motor oil added and the tank filled with petrol it went like a dream and I soon had the job done.

Getting Warmer................

Although we have had some severe overnight frosts the daytime weather has been changing for the better, which has given me a chance to get to the plot and get some jobs done. The ground has been too frozen to do any major digging in the mornings but by the afternoon I have been able to get my fork in and do a bit.

I gave the shallot beds a final dressing of "Growmore"which I raked into the soil, and although the beds are now ready, I intend to wait a couple more weeks before I plant them out, so as to allow the ground to warm up a wee bit.

I made the decision to dig up the last of my parsnips at the weekend. I could have left them in for a few more weeks, but I wanted to clear the bed and get it prepared for the big plant out which is just around the corner.

Things are happening in the greenhouse which is starting to fill up. I have pricked out my onions which I started from seed, Kelsae, Bedfordshire Champion and Red Barron have all been potted on into 3" pots, the pot & blanch leeks are coming on well as is my broccoli and cauliflowers.
I concerned that my Dahlia tubers don't seem to be doing anything at the moment, but I do have shoots coming through on my chrysanthemums so I hope to take a few cuttings shortly.
With plenty to do lets hope the weather remains good.

Raspberries

One of the jobs this week was to prune and cut back my Raspberry canes.

" Malling Jewel" "Heritage" "Autumn Bliss"

I have three varieties, "Malling Jewel" which is a summer cropper, "Heritage" and "Autumn Bliss" which crops later around autumn time as the name suggests. With the summer varieties you only need to cut back the old wood that bore fruit last year as these will not fruit again. This years crop will be from the new growth ( Suckers) which came up last year.

The Autumn varieties however need to be totally cut down to the ground as the fruit will be from this years new growth . Hopefully as the plants matures I will get have bigger and better crop each year.

Early into the spring I will apply a top dressing of a general purpose fertilizer and also a mulch of organic matter such as compost.

Sow Or Soak ????????????

I am very disappointed with my sweet peas, for some reason only 16 out of 60 have germinated. I sowed them at the end of November as per the instructions on the packet exactly as I did last year where I had a 100% germination rate. You might expect one or two to miss but roughly 75% failing to germinate is a mystery, whether it was too cold, or maybe the seed was duff?, I don't know, but I have had to purchase some more seed and start again.

The replacement seed was from Thompson & Morgan. Their instructions state you must soak the seeds overnight in warm water this differs from the Kings seed which I originally sowed as they say to sow straight into seed compost with no mention of soaking.

Apparently according to an article I read on the Internet, soaking softens the hard case of the seed, it then splits, re-hydrates which allows the seed to germinate more easily.

Another article tells you to make a nick in the seed case with a pair of nail clippers, a long laborious and very fiddly job especially if you intend to sow a large number of seeds. I have better things to do with my time than to stand there doing that.

If these do germinate, I will keep the seeds separated and see if there is any difference between the two and hopefully I will know next year whether to sow or soak!

Onions From Seed

By all accounts this is the time of year to sow onion seeds. Previously I have only use onion sets, so I thought this year I might give it a go especially when one of my neighbours gave me half a packet of seeds.


They are a variety called "Kelsae" one of the varities of onion favoured by the vegetable showmen. These showmen can grow them to a colossal size so it will be fun to see what results I obtain.













I have sown around 50 them individually into modules and have them on the windowsill where I hope they will germinate.










I have also sown a couple of other varieties, one call "Bedfordshire Champion and a red onion variety call "Red Barron". Later in the year I intend to plant out onion sets and compare the results of the two methods.

So Cold!..........

Christmas has been and gone and we are now into 2010.
I went down to have a look at the plots for the first time this year with the intentions of digging up some parsnips but with the heavy frosts we have been having recently, the ground was frozen solid so that put pay to that.

A few other brave souls had ventured down the allotment on this cold morning all seemingly, only too pleased to be out in the fresh air after been cooped up over the festive period.

The conditions and the fact that nobody seemed to be in a rush to go back home gave us the opportunity to chat for an hour or so and drink copious amounts of tea and coffee. "Hard work this allotmenteering!"