Hardening off the sweet peas

It might be a little early but I put out the sweet peas to harden off.  If there is a frost then I will bring them in again.  I also put out the shallots.  I need the room in the greenhouse to plant the early peas.  I will continue to plant the peas in sectioned trays, as I did successfully last year, and keep them in the greenhouse away from the mice and the pigeons.

I do not have room to put the peas in yet and I have not put up the sweet pea supports.  They are fine in their pots at the moment but I would not like to keep them like this any longer than the middle of March.

I have a lot of vegetables to prick out now.  I have started but not finished pricking out the tomatoes and leeks. There are also some cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuce and onions that are ready to be put into sectioned trays.

The Apium graveolens rapaceum and the Apium graveolens dulce have not germinated yet.  I am keeping them in the warm until they do.

I bought some New Horizons general growing medium, lime, mychorrhizal fungi, chicken manure and seeds.  I should have a fairly full allotment this year.

Digging the bean trench.

The only reason I am triple digging the climbing French bean bed is because I have some brushwood from the hedge alongside my allotment.  I have cut the hedge right back beyond the fence so that more light can get onto the allotment.  There is also a 30ft x Cupressocyparis leylandii  beginning to grow through the fence.  I will be cutting this back as far as I can.

The woody branches are being put on top of some pernicious weeds given to me by one of the top allotments. The weeds were put at the bottom of the trench.  Leaves and turfs are being put atop that.  The subsoil and the top soil are being sieved back into the trench with additions of pigeon and horse manure.

This process produces some really good looking soil.

I decided to take the Takesumi bamboo charcoal to the allotment so that I could marinade it in comfrey liquid.   I am wondering if I can apply this to the ground using the watering can.  It is very fine dust and will easily pass through the rose holes.  It can mash a bit in the tubs for a while until I need to use it.  

Took up six of the Brussel sprouts plants to take home.  Then I gave two to Chris, one to Mike and Mr Singh took some off one or two plants.  Even with all of this I have four plants still left in the ground.  

I think that I may  water the winter cauliflowers, leeks, strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, rhubarb and gooseberries with comfrey liquid.  This will give them a good start at the beginning of the season.  

Broad beans

I sowed two pans of saved broad bean seeds.  I am altering the planning in the bean and pea bed a little so that I can plant in sequence.  The beans will go in next to the supports for the climbing French beans.  I have started to put up the climbing French bean supports already, although I still need to finish the double digging in this area.

I also sowed Lathyrus latifolius, perennial sweet peas.  I have never grown these before so it will be a new adventure.

The celery and celeriac have not germinated yet.  They take a lot longer than the tomato seeds.

Tomato seedlings are through.

I took the seeds out of the airing cupboard today and all of the tomatoes Lycopersicum esculentum  have germinated.  I put the pots into the cool greenhouse to grow on.  I will prick them out into their own pots when they are a little bigger.  The other tomatoes are doing well in the greenhouse.

None of the other seed I sowed has germinated yet.  I will have my work cut out when they do.

Went down to the allotment this morning and continued with the hugelkultur bed until it started to rain.  I put the weed turfs at the bottom of the trench this time because there may be some bind weed tucked away in it.  This was covered with a layer of holly branches, leaves and turfs.  It will give me a good raised bed to grow the climbing French beans on.

Doing some more Hugelkultur

I wanted to bury the old blackcurrant bushes and the cuttings with big bud on them.  There were some other things that needed burying so I decided to do some trenching.

One spit down.

I am going to put the climbing French beans here so a good deep root run will be good for them.  The top soil is left on the right of the picture.
Now we go down another spit.

The old huglekulture wood can be seen.

When I dug out the second spit, I found last years hugelkultur wood.  It had rotted away to a fibrous peaty mass. I am going to mix this with the subsoil when I put the soil back in the trench.

Having a layer of woody material under the Brussel sprouts does not seem to have affected them detrimentally.  In fact I think that it might have encouraged them to grow larger.

I used the fork to turn over the bottom of the trench.  You can see the sandy clay that is the subsoil on the allotment.  I don't usually turn this up because the top soil is so deep on the allotment.  This area used to be where my old greenhouse was and I never double dug here while the green house was up.  This means that the top soil is not very deep.

I put the old blackcurrant bushes at the bottom and then got some more brush wood.  These are twigs and branches from a laburnum tree overhanging the fence.  Laburnum is a legume nitrogen fixing plant. Does this mean that I am adding extra nitrogen to the soil?

I then added a good layer of weeds that included couch grass and docks.  They may grow but I don't think so. On top of them I put a thick layer of leaves.  I'm not too sure about these leaves.  They have been rotting away in the bins by the gate for a while but they still look a little ropey.

Still needs must... Finally I put a layer of upturned turfs on the top.

If the weeds can grow through that lot then they deserve to be given a chance.  They wont be though.  Now I put the subsoil back but I am going to sieve it and add horse and pigeon muck.

The subsoil looks much better when it is sieved and mixed with manure. I am sieving through an old bread tray.  The holes in the bottom of the tray are about 1 inch square.  I just push the soil backwards and forwards in the tray until it falls through the holes.   I will sieve the top soil on top of the  subsoil mixing in more horse and pigeon muck.

And that is how I do hugelkultur.  I am hoping that this will heat up a bit and allow me to get an early crop of lettuce off it.

Allotment photographs for February 2012

I remembered to take my camera and take some photographs today.  It is a bit over half way through February. Allotments do not look good at the best of times and this is not the best of times. They are honest photographs of a hard working allotment warts and all.

Worm bin

The worm bin has been very useful recently because I have been putting dandelions, bind weed and mare's tail in it for the worms to get their teeth into.  It is producing quite a bit of liquid which I drain off using the tap at the bottom.  I am just mixing worm bin liquid with the comfrey liquid at the moment.  The nettles have died right back but I am sure that they will start shooting in a couple of weeks.  I will put them with the comfrey and sweet cicely to rot down in the big green bins and make some lovely liquid manure. I am going to take down one of the compost bins because I never fill them.  The one behind the worm bin is going to go.  It had the pigeon muck in it so the ground will be quite fertile.  As it has so many stones in it, I will leave it to the nettles to colonise.  I will use the nettles to make nettle liquid fertiliser.

 I will fix up that bird table when I get a chance.

Comfrey bed in January

Dug over in February.

It does not look like it but I have dug over the comfrey.  Got rid of those stones thank heavens.  The comfrey died right back when the cold weather came during the beginning of February.  I have put the sundial up but I am not sure whether I am going to keep it here.  

Seived new potato bed soil.

Finally finished sieving this soil at the end of January.  I have taken a lot of cuttings from the gooseberry.  Some of the autumn cuttings have rooted all ready.  The black bins at the back of the bed are over the rhubarb to force it.  I have put some horse manure around the bases to try and warm the soil and speed the process up.  I doubt if I will have any manure left over but if I do I will put it around the rhubarb.  

This is all the manure I have left

I am going to put oca alongside the trackway and 90 degrees to the path.  It is very open here and they will get the light all day.  Update in March - only if you buy some more Tone because all the tubers were killed by a heavy frost.  

Poor old vine

I have moved this vine so many times that I am really surprised that it is still going.  It is in the poorest ground on the allotment. Vines are put into poor ground to restrict their prodigious growth during the summer and to encourage fruiting.  When it was growing strongly, I had to cut it back about three times a year.  I have built up the soil quite a bit by adding dead organic matter.  To keep this good soil away from the vine, I put the slabs around.  It meant that I did not need to move the vine again..  I reckon that lots of nutrients will get to the roots because the slabs do not keep enough of the poorest soil around it but nothing I can do about that except continue to cut it hard back in summer.   I decided to use the stone that I have been sieving out to make a stone mulch for it.  

Rhubarb under the forcing bins

A good sieved soil for the potatoes

This soil still looks a bit ropey but I reckon that it will grow some good potatoes and oca Oxalis tuberosum.  You can see the stone that I removed in the background.  

The new onion bed is full of green manure, garlic, American land cress, rocket, broad beans and tulips.   

The garlic got knocked about a bit by the frosts and snow but it grows much better when it has been frosted like this.  

Raspberry canes

Raspberries are doing all right.  They usually get broken by the wind but I have tied them in very carefully this year.  

New sweet pea bed.

The new sweet pea bed is nearly empty now.  I have dug in some horse manure and leaves.  It has been rough raked and will need another rake before I put the poles in.  There are still some leeks and celeriac to be eaten.  

Leeks under enviromesh

Blackberry

New brassica bed.

I have a flower garden here.  All the bits and pieces have either been given to me, come from cuttings or grown from seed.  The old plum stump might come in handy because I want to do some bud grafting onto it. 

Green manures in brassica bed

The green manures were planted a little late and have not developed very well.  I will leave them in until the brassicas are ready to go in.  

Blackcurrants

No sign of big bud on the blackcurrants but I have cut them so hard back that I don't think I will have much of a crop this year.  

Strawberry bed.

The strawberries are getting a little overwhelmed with the poached egg plant seedlings.  I will take the poached egg plants out soon but use them elsewhere in the allotment as a green manure or companion plant. The purple sprouting broccoli has not flowered again.  I will only plant one small row this year.  

Winter cauliflowers

I still have quite a few winter cauliflowers.  They will come in April and I am hoping they are out of the way when I want to plant my late peas.  

More of the winter cauliflowers

I have decided to put in a huglekulture bed where the Brussel sprouts are being taken out.  I am burying the old big bud infected blackcurrant bushes and other stuff I have found round the allotment.

Been eating Brussels since before Christmas

And I still have these left.  They will be eaten in the next few weeks though.  They grew quite large this year. They are about 3 foot tall.  

I have sieved this soil in readiness for the carrots.  There should be an unimpeded root run for them.  The bay tree is well and truly wrapped up.  I did not want it to die back this year.  

Green manure on roots bed

Celery and leaves bed

I have dug and sieved horse manure and pigeon muck into this area for the "leaves".  I will be planting Swiss  chard, celery, celeriac, lettuce, etc. where the tarpaulin is.  I have put about ten beer traps under the tarp to try to reduce the number of slugs and snails here.  It is the first time for a great number of years that I have tried celery.  It is usually spoilt by slugs before it can be eaten.  I am going to use nematodes over this bed later in the spring in order to reduce their numbers.  

Taking cuttings of house plants.

I am not a very good house plant person.  I tend to forget to water and supply them with nutrients.  However, I do enjoy taking cuttings and producing lots of plants from individuals.  To all those that do not like cloning switch off now because taking cuttings is cloning plants.

A great many different greenhouse plants can be propagated using different types of leaf cuttings.  I usually take one complete healthy leaf off the plant with the petiole still attached.  The petiole is then pushed into the cutting compost - I still like to use New Horizons peatless compost and sharp sand in a 3:1 ratio but  I am using a 3:1 compost to perlite in the photographs.  The leaf stalk is pushed into the compost until the leaf lamina is lying on the compost surface.

Taking a leaf cutting from a Saintpaulia

It is remarkable how easily these cuttings produce new plants.  In a relatively short time roots are developed at the base of the leaf and the new plant sends out shoots.  Both Gloxinias and Saintpaulias are ideal subjects for taking cuttings.

A different method is used when taking cuttings of Begonia Rex.  A healthy leaf is taken off as I did with the Saintpaulia.

Taking a cutting from the Begonia Rex

The petiole is removed, although I have often left a stub of petiole on the leaf and pushed this into the growing media.  

Then the veins of the underside of the leaf are scored with the knife although I have had success with horizontal cuts across the veins as well. 

Scoring along the veins on the back of the leaf.

The leaves are then placed onto the growing medium and weighed down with stones to provide a good contact with the soil.  

Leaf lamina cuttings on the growing media

In some books it is suggested that wire is used to peg down the leaves.  This damages the leaves and allows a possible entry point for pathogenic fungi so I avoid using it.  

Begoinia Rex can also be propagated using leaf sections.  

Taking leaf sections

The main requirement for this method of taking cuttings is that the leaf is placed vertically in the growing medium the right way round.  The tip of the leaf or the part of the leaf cutting that would be nearest the tip of the leaf should be pointing up.

Sansevierias (Mother in law's tongue) can be propagated like this as well.  They do not grow to type though because they are chimeras.The veins going from thick at the bottom to thinner at the top. 

Sansevierias (Mother in law's tongue) can be propagated like this as well.  They do not grow to type though because they are chimeras.

Leaf cuttings need to be rooted in a warm, damp atmosphere so it is essential to keep everything used in the propagating procedure as clean as possible; compost and containers being sterilized if necessary.  It is also important to get the right balance with watering because provide too much and the leaves will rot, while too little  will dry them up. Most of these cuttings will need a temperature of about 16^oC to 18^oC  to root well.  If they can be put into a heated propagator this will increase success.  

More seed planted.

I put in the rest of the Lycopersicum esculentum seed.  They are tucked away in an airing cupboard to give them a little more warmth.  They should be through in about a week or so.  I planted some more celery Apium graveolens var. dulce; lettuce Lactuca sativa; Cabbage Brassica oleracea capitata "Golden Acre".  The Celeriac Apium graveolens rapaceum were sown in a small pot and put in the airing cupboard with the tomatoes.

I have pricked out onions, celery, cauliflower and cabbage into trays or pots using the New Horizon's general purpose compost.  I have put all of these onto the shelves inside the polythene "greenhouse" I have put into the big greenhouse.  Not only will this keep them a little more protected from frost but will bring them on a little.

I went down the allotment yesterday and continued to tidy the comfrey bed.  I don't know if I have straightened all the lines of comfrey because they have died back and I could not find all of the plants.  They are more or less straight now though.  I have constructed the sundial here as well.

I put some black dustbins over the rhubarb, Rheum rhaponticum,  to force it a little.  This will mean that we can get some good petioles at the end of March and the beginning of April.  The skill is to remove the bins before the rhubarb becomes too weakened.  I heaped some of the horse muck around the bottom of the bins to heat them up and bring the rhubarb on a little quicker.


I have taken out the black currant cuttings because they have some big bud on them.  I think that the severe pruning I did on the main bushes has cleared off the big bud,  Cecidophyopsis ribis, from them. They look quite healthy.  I replaced two that died over the winter with cuttings that I had potted up.  I think that I am going to bury the plants that I took out.

I wasn't going to dig this area over; just hoe and use the three pronged cultivator to rake it over.  However if I am going to bury these blackcurrant bushes, I might as well dig the rest over as well.  I will have to bury the blackcurrants quite deep to avoid them depleting the soil of nitrogen and to prevent the big bud mite from escaping into the top soil.

I have started in earnest on the celery bed.  I dug out a trench and then sieved horse manure and pigeon muck into the next spit down.  I dug up the remains of the beans and peas that I had dug into this bed but they broke down and sieved into the soil just as the manure did.  There are some plane tree leaves Platanus x hispanica which are a little thick and rubbery in the horse muck.  I didn't think that they would go through the sieve but they did and you cannot make them out now because they are mixed in so well with the soil.  I am trying to keep this trench lower than the surrounding soil so that I can keep the celery damp throughout the year.  

We may have major problems with drought this summer because they are saying that the water table is very low now.  I hope that I have added enough organic matter to take up any rain water that we get and provide a reservoir which the plants can tap into.  I am going to try to use mychorrhizal fungi on all the plants that form associations with it because this may help in lessening the effect of drought.   

Seed potatoes have come.

The seed potatoes from JBA came on Tuesday. www.jbaseedpotatoes.co.uk  I am keeping them in the house at the moment because it is too cold  to put them into the greenhouse.  They are of a good size for seed potatoes.  I have only got Kestrel this year because I grew too many last year.  If I stick to my plan and just plant these, I should have more than enough.

I will chit these potatoes by putting them into trays and leaving them on the staging in the cool greenhouse.  This will help them to develop small buds.  It is suggested that this encourages the potato to produce more or bigger tubers.  (Tubers are stem swellings at the end of rhizomes.  You can tell that the tubers are stems because roots do not usually have buds on them.)  I don' t know if chitting makes any difference to the yield of potatoes but I think that reducing the number of buds will give larger tubers.

I am not going to take any of the buds off.  I will grow them as they come.  I hope that I get as bigger yield as I did last year.

I am going to wait until after the cold weather to plant any more seed.  The ones that I have are growing well still but they are getting a little drawn because I cannot put them out into the greenhouse yet without them getting damaged by the cold.

The sweet peas seem to be surviving at the moment.  They have been knocked about by the cold weather and they need to be watered.  I cannot water them at the moment so I will have to wait until it warms up a little.  Watering now may lead to the water freezing on the plants which is not a good idea.  Also it encourages fungal damping off.

This cold weather is not good for gardeners.  You cannot get onto the allotment or garden to do any jobs.  Having said that I may go to the allotment today to get some more vegetables.  I want to get the rest of the carrots, some parsnips, beetroot, salsify, scorzonera, Brussel sprouts, rocket and American land cress.

One of the worst jobs in gardening is harvesting Brussel sprouts in this cold weather.