Using turf on the allotment.

Although it might be too early and they might be caught by the frost,  I have planted all the potatoes.  I have ridged them up so that they will not emerge for a couple of weeks but this may not protect them after they have grown higher than the ridges.  I will have to make sure that they are protected in some way later in April.

A friend of mine has left a big pile of turfs on the allotment.  I was considering what to do with them until Ed came over.  I asked him if he wanted my left over potatoes. He said that he always put left over potatoes on the compost heap, not to rot down but to grow on.  He said that he got some really big potatoes that way.

The compost heaps had been cleared out and used during the winter digging so there was nothing in the compost bins.  However, I did have some turf and there was some bits of cow muck, leaves and lawn mowings in the bins by the gate.  So, together with weeds from another allotment I proceeded to make a new compost heap.  The allotment society had just had a big bonfire and the ashes could be used by anyone.  Ashes are alkaline and are said to have a lot of potash in them so they would make a good substitute for lime.  The turfs would provide the top soil and the cow muck, leaves, lawn mowings and weeds would make up the organic layer.  It took me about an hour to fill one of the compost bins putting potatoes near the edges as the layers were built up.

I am hoping to get a good harvest of potatoes when I take the compost apart.  I may put a pumpkin on this compost heap as well.

I finished constructing the supports for the climbing French beans.  These supports are poles made from tree branches.  As I have been cutting poles from the hedge running down the side of the allotment, I had far too many.  I think that I might need some for the runner beans so I will have to store them somewhere.  The allotment is filling up and there is little space for storing anything.

Two rows of peas were planted and watered in with some of the bamboo charcoal.  I put chicken wire up for one of the rows but the other row is right under the winter cauliflowers so I just put some plastic cloches over them.  I am letting the peas climb up the outside of the chicken wire this year just to see how they do.  They are more difficult to harvest if they are inside the chicken wire supports.

The winter cauliflowers are growing remarkably well now but they have not formed cauliflowers yet.  They always take much longer than I want them to.  I need the space now.  It is a good job that I am trying to grow peas in succession because otherwise I would need the ground to plant peas in.

Winter cauliflowers are looking much better
than this now.

I made the protective barrier for the alliums out of blue plastic water pipe and a large piece of enviromesh.  The enviromesh was very expensive but it had to be bought to get any onions at all.  My other pieces of enviromesh, I bought over 20 years ago, are still very useful.  This makes it sound a lot more economical.  The mesh is covering the garlic and I will plant the shallots underneath it in the next couple of weeks.  The onions are still growing on in the greenhouse.  They will have to be a lot bigger before I put them out.

I cut two big branches off an overhanging oak tree to give the allotment more light.  The larger ones are about 5 inches in diameter.  I was going to give them away to someone who uses them in their wood burning stove.  However, I have changed my mind and am going to make a new Hugelkultur bed with them.

The trench will be about three spits deep and a layer of couch grass and dock turfs will be put at the bottom.  The branches and brushwood will be put in next and the gaps filled with shredded branches.  Leaves and lawn mowing will be put on top of that and finally a layer of turfs will top it off.   The top soil will be sieved back into the trench. Inoculated charcoal and chicken manure will be mixed in as the soil is being sieved. I may use some of the lime to mix in as well.

 If there is any subsoil in the trench, I am going to remove it and put it in the empty compost bin to be mixed in with the compost,.

I am glad the weather is getting colder because it stops me from sowing seeds and planting too early.

What to plant after pea plants have been taken out.

As soon as all the peas have been taken, I take the pea plants out and dismantle the supports. This leaves a large area of bare soil.

Bare soil is not really what is wanted in a garden. Although roughly dug bare soil was left in the olden days to be broken down by the frosts in the winter and gave an area that birds could pick over and remove any pests such as slugs and snails, it also meant nutrients would be leached out of the soil and erosion could occur.

The idea nowadays is to make sure that the soil is covered throughout the year. There are several ways of doing this. You can cover the area with black plastic sheets or tarpaulin. This is fine but it does protect slugs and snails that like the damp habitat beneath the plastic. You have to keep this in mind when you are removing the black plastic and collect all the slugs and snails up and remove them from the soil before planting or you will loose all your plants.

The second way that the ground can be covered is with a green manure. This year I think that I am going to use clovers, tares and grazing rye. In the past I have used ordinary lawn rye grass but this seems to be much slower to germinate and does not put on as much growth as grazing rye. All of these green manures can be planted now and left to their own devices over the winter. I plant the green manure in lines so that I can weed in between them. While the weeds could be used as green manure, if they are allowed to seed they make weeding harder next year. So I weed between the rows of green manure. I am ordering green manure now, although it might have been more opportune to have ordered them in July.

The third way of covering the soil is to plant another crop. The problem with this is that you have to be careful not to plant something that will disrupt your rotation plan. I like to keep all the brassicas together on one bed so that I can control club root. This year I got club root in the turnips and the summer cauliflowers. I'm not sure where this came from because the allotment has been club root free for about 20 years now and I gave the bed a liberal dose of lime. So, I would rather not put winter brassicas on the pea bed.

I could put leeks or winter onions on the bed but I don't really want to. There will be space on the onion bed when the lettuce and cucumbers are taken out and the leeks will be planted there. I am not really in the mood to plant winter onions because of the onion miner fly Phytomyza gymnostoma. It is endemic throughout the allotment site and especially on my allotment. It does affect the leeks too but I will protect them with fleece or enviromesh. Phytomyza gymnostoma has a second generation of egg laying flies around about the end of September and October. This means that all the onions and leeks need to be covered by that time. I would rather plant onion seed in January or February than risk planting sets in October.

The only alternative that would not cause the rotation problems was to plant more peas on the bed. Now the whole philosophy of rotation is to move plants so they are not growing in the same area as they were last year. This is to make sure that they do not deplete nutrients and increase the number of pests in the soil. However, the pea plants that I have just taken out and dug into the soil were very healthy and more or less pest free. Peas can form a symbiotic relationship with rhizobium bacteria and fix nitrogen from the air, therefore lack of this nutrient would not be a problem. So, I thought that I would risk putting in another four rows of peas in. This time of year you need a quick growing variety and I chose Kelvedon Wonder. I have not grown it on my allotment before so this is a bit of an experiment. Also I have never grown peas at this time of the year before.

Will the peas survive healthily and will they produce a crop of peas?


Tried the peas and they did not work. They were very weak and grew poorly. I will not try this again but look for an alternative crop such as rocket, american land cress and lambs lettuce.

Continuing to dig over the pea bed.

Yesterday I dug about half of the pea bed and today I finished it off.  Mick was good enough to give me the weeds that he was collecting as he dug up the potatoes.  I just see weeds as free nutrients and I will bury them without any compunction.

I dug out trenches two feet wide and one spit down.  The bottom of the trench was forked over really well.

It is amazing just how dry the soil was in the bottom of the trench even with a week of rain.  Weeds and grass mowings were used to fill the trench and this was then covered by the top soil from the next trench.

It was a little time consuming because I had to wheel barrow the weeds from Mick's allotment and the grass mowings from the bins near the gate.  I have virtually taken all the grass mowings from the bay much to the chagrin of Ed who wanted to use some of the mowings to weigh down the weeds he had put onto his compost heap.  Well if there is anything that is almost certain in this world it is that there will be more lawn mowings put into the bins before the summer is out and Ed is welcome to those.

While I had the trench open, I thought that it would be an idea to empty the worm bin.  The bin has not been emptied for about three years now so it was well overdue for a good clean out.  There were lots of worms and some very good compost at the bottom.  I took out the top six inches and put it to one side.  The rest went into the barrow to be taken up to the trench.  I messed around with the bit at the bottom which keeps the compost away from the liquid so that the liquid would flow out of the bin easily.  The top 6 inches were returned to the bin together with some lettuces and comfrey leaves.

The worm bin compost was then put into the last trench together with lawn mowings and some tree leaves.  The top soil was put back and the whole bed was levelled - more or less - with a rake.  I will have to level it a little more because the soil has been raised by about six inches but I will do this with more care when I plant out the Kelvedon Wonder peas.

The Kestrel potatoes seemed to have grown well.  I took one plant out and got about 5 kg of potatoes from it. I will take some more of these out today.

I only had time to harvest some turnips, swedes and tomatoes today.  There were also some podded peas to take home.  I will harvest more tomorrow.

Harvesting

I have been seriously cropping the peas this week.  Overall I have 11.5kg (25 lb) of podded peas, which is about 2.9 kg (6.3lb) per row.  The rows were 3.65metres (12ft) long and for this I should be getting at least 4lb per row.

So not bad. With charcoal and mychorrhizal fungi there is an increase of 2lb a row.  The peas were fertilised only with a top dressing of sieved home made compost and comfrey liquid.  So no bought fertilisers.  That can't be bad.

The harvest of strawberries has finished now.  The last ones I picked were on the 22nd June.  I got about 20.5kg off five rows and this seems eminently satisfactory.

At the moment I am harvesting brocolli, calabrese, raspberries, blackberries, broad beans, peas, courgettes, turnips, lettuce, carrots, beetroot and potatoes.

It is amazing just how much time it takes to harvest the vegetables and fruit.  I need to speed up a little.

I have taken out the summer purple sprouting and the calabrese and these will be replaced by one line of calabrese.  The broad beans have been taken out but new ones have been planted where the garlic has been taken out.  The winter cauliflowers growing under the broad beans need to be earthed up and given some comfrey liquid.

The broad bean tops have been taken off with a pair of secateurs and the roots left in the ground.  The roots are infected with rhizobium bacteria which fixes nitrogen from the air and converts it into ammonia which is a natural fertiliser for plants.  The nitrogen is taken up by the plants - such as broad bean - to make proteins. So to gain this nitrogen we can use the broad bean plant as a green manure.  If the roots are left in the soil they will provide about 30% of the available nitrogen but if the tops are dug in as well they will provide about 60% of the available nitrogen to the soil.

Lots of people leave the roots in the soil but burn the tops.  They are wasting 60% of the natural nitrogen fertiliser.

As there are winter cauliflowers in the way, the tops will not be dug in but put on the compost heap.  They will provide a little nitrogen for the rotting down process.

The peas have been harvested but there are a few left on to fatten up.  When these last few are cropped the plants will be dug into the same ground as they grew on as a green manure.  As with the broad beans, their roots are infected with rhizobium bacteria which has been fixing nitrogen from the atmosphere.  Digging them in will add nitrogen to the soil.

They will be replaced by a late crop of peas.

It could be argued that peas should not be planted where peas have been growing recently but there is little chance that there would be any problems. The peas will be planted with mychorrhizal fungi and inoculated charcoal again.  This will just add to the charcoal already on this bed.

Some of the sweet peas will be layered this weekend.  This involves them being taken off the cane supports and laid down along the ground to go up another cane support.  This will be time consuming too.

Just cropping and weeding the rest of the allotment.

Allotment competition

The allotment competition is next Tuesday so I thought that I would give it a go and see where my allotment is compared to other allotments in town.  I have no idea what each of the categories mean because there is one for parsnips and my parsnips will not be anywhere near ready by next Tuesday.
Still I decided to tidy up the allotment starting with the top pea and bean bed.  Although there was a five week gap between the first sowing and the last, my peas seem to have caught each other up and they are all producing peas now.  I don't mind at all because I will freeze them anyway but for the competition you need to demonstrate  succession.  I picked the first of them today - 100grams.
The climbing French beans are recovering from the devastation that the slugs and snails wrought.  They are cheerfully climbing up the supports or the netting that I put up for the sweet peas.  Beneath the French beans are a row of courgettes or as the Americans insist on calling them Zucchini. (I only put this in because an American website said the opposite about the English.  Courgette is a French word meaning little marrow - it's not even an English word)   The courgettes are about 5 cm long now so we will be harvesting them soon.  
I hoed up the Brussel sprouts again and removed yellow leaves to tidy them up.  There was very little weed under their canopy so there was no need to hoe.  
The winter cauliflowers are growing well and I removed any yellow leaves and hoed these up as well.  The ones that I planted under the broad beans have not had the opportunity to thrive and look very bedraggled.  Half of the broad beans were taken out and stripped of their pods. This will give the winter cauliflowers more light. I have to show succession of cauliflowers for the competition and these cauliflowers will demonstrate it very well.  
The turnips are just getting to a reasonable size for using in salads.  I tasted one yesterday but in my view it did not taste like a melon at all.  The seed packet said that it would! 
I still need to take the yellow leaves off the brocolli but there is little weed underneath them and they will not need to be hoed particularly.  
The summer cauliflowers were recovered with 1cm netting to keep the cabbage white butterfly off them.  I put some larger plastic water pipes bent into an arc into the ground to keep the netting off the plants.  I cannot stand having cauliflowers with loads of green caterpillars entwined deep within the floret.


Bye the bye it was  time for tea and I took the broad bean pods down to the shed.  While the tea was on the boil, the broad beans were depodded and put into a blue plastic bag.  They taste much better if you use a blue plastic bag.  


I had a good cup of PG tips tea and two or three chocolate hobnob biscuits.  Several pea pods were opened and the contents consumed as an aperitif - or should that be the tea?

I picked a few more pea pods to take home.  The squashes are coming along well and have flower buds on them.  I doubt that I will see any squashes until August though.

I will continue to tidy the allotment tomorrow.  The brassicas just need their yellow leaves removing because they have all formed a canopy that excludes light to the weeds underneath.  This means that there are few weeds if any.
Everyone that goes past seems to get a bunch of sweet peas but I am not too worried because the sweet peas are really flowering well.  They will get a good sorting and watering tomorrow.  I will also pick more of the raspberries or they will go over before I have a chance to eat or freeze them.

It is a horrible thought but I think that potato blight is back with us again.

Soft Fruit Harvest

I have about 2.75kg of blackcurrants from the poor bushes.  That is quite a lot and I am really pleased about it.  It took hours to pick them and then another hour to wash them and remove all the leaves and stalks which makes them totally uneconomic but like the Amish  I do not count this as work but a pleasurable activity.

What you have to factor in is the exercise, the fresh air and the pleasure that you get from being outside.  Blackcurrant picking is pleasurable - when it finishes.  There were some green currants that I left on the bushes but I doubt whether there is more than a couple of kilo.  I don't know whether it is worth the time and effort to collect these as well or just leave them for the birds.

I picked another kilo of strawberries.

Did a little feeding and watering.  The turnips and the radish got a good soaking to make sure they continue to grow.  They are being eaten by flea beetle but there will still be enough there for what I want.

I weeded around the peas but this is more cosmetic than of any benefit to the peas.  These weeds are the few that have not been shaded out by the peas.  The peas continue to grow.  I watered them again today and hopefully I will get them to four feet tall.

Remarkably the dwarf beans are surviving and have not been damaged by slugs and snails.   I gave them a good feed of comfrey liquid.

It was a lovely evening so I decided to have a quiet cup of tea and a sit in the sun.