Starting to clear and triple dig an allotment (11)

I really needed to give my back a rest because it is beginning to ache all the time particularly when sitting down for long periods.  So I gave the digging a rest for a while.

On my new allotment I planted several apples and pears and now I am thinking of moving them.  I was trying to make some permaculture guilds but its too much of a hassle and not really worth it.

I have a Egremont Russet and a Ribston Pippin and a pear in the wrong place.  The Ribston Pippin I grafted myself and I am very proud of my efforts - first grafting that actually took.  I can prune this to an espalier and put it near the path.  The Egremont Russet and the pear (lost the label for this and forgotten what it is) are standards and I'm still not sure where to put them in their final positions.  I also have a discovery and two pear trees at my old allotment that I am going to bring down to the new.  They are only about 2 foot tall so I think that they will move easily.  I will probably try to train them as espaliers or cordons.

I am going to move them as soon as I decide where to put them - if the weather is reasonable.

I moved one of the vines today.  Sun was shining and the air temperature was around 7oC so I am not worried about how it will fare. It is a white grape and was grown from a cutting.  I'm amazed how easy it is to strike a vine cutting.   I want to move the other vine soon too.   It is a black grape which I bought from our local vineyard at Half Penny Green which I am now told is the largest in the country.

I also planted my strawberry bed using the strawberries I had potted up in September.  I would rather plant in October but I still think that I will get some good plants putting them in now.

I have three M9 rootstocks of the grafts that did not take and am going to try again in the spring.  I'm going to use the Pippin and Russet for sions because the Cox's Orange Pippin and Discovery have not thrown up any suitable shoots.  I will have to decide where to put these too.

Just as long as the air temperature is not too cold and the ground is not frozen, I will move plants around.
I'm putting mychorrhizal fungi on the roots of all of them because I think that this helps them to establish quickly.

So, that's what I do.  I will not kill them but I might not get any fruit next year; however they wont be in the way.

It's not always possible to put sheds and fruit trees int he right place to avoid shading the rest of the allotment.  I have hummed and hawed about where to put my fruit trees but also about where to put two sheds.  I might just sell the old allotment sheds and buy a new one - but where to put it?

In any case I would rather keep one of the sheds because it was my old dad's shed.  It would be cheaper to move them than to buy one - have you seen how much they cost?  

One of the sheds could be put next to the hedge at the bottom of the allotment.  Not much of a slope down there but there is one.  It is not likely to get waterlogged down there.  The hedge is on the south side of the allotment and this means that the shed will shade the allotment for some of the day - but not much especially in the summer.

I could put it near the main trackway but this will leave it more open to vandalism and being broken into. The trackway is to the north of the allotment and here the shed would not shade any of the veg.

I'm not sure whether they will allow me to have three sheds on the allotment so I am not going to ask for permission.

If I put them in the wrong plance it will irritate me until I move them.  Planning allotments is not that easy!

Christmas vegetables.

I went round for the Christmas harvest today and this is what I took home for Christmas dinners:

1. Curly kale
2. Purple sprouting broccoli
3. Brussel sprouts
4. Winter cabbage
5. Parsnips
6. Carrots
7. Leeks
8. Onions - from the store shed.
9. The last squash in the store shed.  All my butternut squash have rotted away.  
10. Elephant garlic from the store shed
11. Ordinary garlic from the store shed
12. Shallots from the store shed
13. Beetroot
14. Salsify
15. Hamburg parsley
16. Swede
17. Kohlrabi
18. Red Duke of York potatoes from the store shed.   

I think that I might just have enough veg for Christmas dinner.  What is left will make soup for the rest of the week.

The problem with having so many different vegetables for Christmas dinner is that it takes a long time to wash, peel and prepare them for the pot.

Been at it all morning!

Starting to clear and triple dig an allotment (10)

Finished trench 9 and about to begin trench 10.  I am still using the shredded goat willow Salix caprea as a carbon source to put at the bottom of the trenches.  In the past I have used Cupressocyparis leylandii shreddings or any other that I could get my hands on.

Using Cupressocyparis leylandii shreddings

A few years ago, I would never have done this.  I thought that adding carbon like this would deplete the soil of nitrogen.  Microorganisms need nitrogen to make proteins and nitrogen is gleaned from the soil around the shreddings.  However, I have always buried the shreddings quite deep in a trench Hugelkultur and allowed the shreddings to decompose before bringing them up nearer to the surface when making the next trench.  

Quercus robur logs and branches

What fascinated me was that there seemed to be no nitrogen deficiency in the area of the the trench. Vegetables, which are notoriously nitrogen dependent, grew normally with no sign of lack of nitrogen.  

On the new allotment the soil is particularly thin lacking dead organic matter.  This means that the characteristics of the clay becomes very dominant.  With the deep digging, it is much easier to fork over, however the soil is very heavy and tends to cap over after the rain - and we have had a lot of rain recently.  

Adding the shredded goat willow Salix caprea will add dead organic matter to the soil but this will take time to decompose and be mixed with the top soil so I will have to invest in some horse or farmyard manure to dig into the top soil.  This manure will rot down much quicker and be incorporated to make the soil much more open and friable.  

The soil is heavy because clay holds a lot of water.  Adding dead organic matter will allow a clay soil to drain much quicker.  Adding gravel will also open the soil and make it lighter and I was going to do this until I read about rock dust which will also add nutrients - or so the theory would lead us to believe. I bought some rock dust and am adding it to both replenish nutrients and to improve the structure of the top soil.  I know there is some debate about adding rock dust but I can find very little academic research about it at the moment.  I will continue to look for some academic validation for adding rock dust but I am not optimistic about finding any.

I am using two foot square concrete slabs to make the path down the side of the allotment.  The original top soil from the path has been sieved to get the weed rhizomes out and put onto the growing areas.  The hole that is left is filled with stones that have been sieved from the growing area.  A little of the clay subsoil is put over the stones to make it easier to level and the concrete slabs have been put on top of the subsoil.  

Adding the shredded brushwood material has raised the allotment above the level of the path and has meant that a curb has to be put down the side of the path to keep the top soil from falling onto the path.  I am using 50 square centimeter slabs for this job, however I am quickly running out of them so I will use the two foot square slabs as curbing when necessary.  

While it is possible to still dig when the ground is saturated due to the rain we have been having over the last week, it is not very pleasant particularly where the soil contains a lot of clay.   So, leaving the ground to dry out a little, I will do some moving plants around.  The fruit trees are now fully dormant so, when there is a little relatively dry and warm weather, I will move the apple trees into their permanent positions.  I am trying to find places where they will get maximum sunlight but will not overly shade the allotment.  

I have already decided to plant the strawberries Fragaria ananassa between the new compost bays and the grape vine, Vitis  vinifera.  I have sown some green manure in this area and will have to dig it in as I plant the strawberries.  Fragaria ananassa  seems to respond well to being watered in with comfrey liquid. They will also be given some mychorrhizal fungi to encourage symbiosis and, hopefully, better more fruitful plants.  

I went round for the Christmas harvest today and this is what I took home for Christmas dinners:

1. Curly kale
2. Purple sprouting broccoli
3. Brussel sprouts
4. Winter cabbage
5. Parsnips
6. Carrots
7. Leeks
8. Onions - from the store shed.
9. The last squash in the store shed.  All my butternut squash have rotted away.  
10. Elephant garlic from the store shed
11. Ordinary garlic from the store shed
12. Shallots from the store shed
13. Beetroot
14. Salsify
15. Hamburg parsley
16. Swede
17. Kohlrabi
18. Red Duke of York potatoes from the store shed.   

I think that I might just have enough veg for Christmas dinner.  What is left will make soup for the rest of the week.

Starting to clear and triple dig an allotment (9) Using the rock dust.

I am just finishing trench nine and beginning trench ten.  The soil is becoming much more heavy with a lot of clay.  I have moved the stones in the path I made last year to the left hand side of the allotment to make a good path there.  The stones will help to keep the allotment drained particularly as there is a lot of clay.  I will cap them off with two foot square slabs.  I dug out the top soil from where the path was going, sieved it and put it onto the growing area of the allotment.  No point in covering good top soil with a path.  The stones filled the hole admirably.  I will have to use some of the slabs as curbing because the soil has been raised so much.  I am adding quite a lot of shredded brushwood to the subsoil of the triple dig trenches.  The shreddings pile is steaming and full of fungi mycelium.  Shows you could use this to make a hotbed.

The green manure seems to be growing well because the temperatures are staying around 10 degrees even during the night.

As part of the triple sieve digging, I am mixing in rock dust on the areas that I am going to use for the peas, roots and leafy veg.  Just to see if this makes any difference.

As the soil was becoming very heavy and clay like, I decided to add some horticultural grit just to break up the soil and make it more workable.  However, I thought that if I was going to add grit, I might as well add rock dust instead because that will add some nutrients as well.

Most natural nutrients come from the weathering and erosion of bedrock.  (You get some nitrogen fixed by bacterial and some nutrients like sulphur and nitrogen from rain) .  So,  I have added rock dust as I sieved the top soil.

Whether the nutrients in the rock dust are readily available to plant roots or whether they need to be further broken down is debateable but regardless I get the benefits of better drainage and a soil that is easier to work.

I would suggest that mychorrhizal fungi might be able to access this nutrient store breaking down the dust using powerful enzymes and acids secreted from their hyphae.  If this is possible then the plants they are associated with might benefit.

Now that I have been mulling this over, I am wondering if mixing crushed inoculated charcoal will add to its efficacy.  The charcoal has been marinating in comfrey liquid for over six months now so should be fully charged with nutrients.

Maybe I will add this to the leafy veg soil.   I will be making biochar from shredded bark chippings in the spring.  That will be interesting - for me.