RHS Level 2 Diploma in the Principles and Practices of Horticulture

I am chuffed to say that I got the Royal Horticultural Society Level 2 Diploma on Friday.  Bit of a faff getting it but it shows me that I am working at a fairly good level of knowledge.  I am taking the RHS  level 3 practical gardening course at the moment, which is very enjoyable.  I might take the first part of the theory in February next year.

I went up to the old allotment this morning and decided to finish off digging the green manure into the brassica bed.  And this with a bad back!  The soil here is so light and friable that it took no effort but I am still feeling it now.

After digging, I put in a row of swede.  The ground had been walked over when I had watered the cauliflowers and cabbages so it did not need consolidating.  I put the garden line about 12 inches from the line of cabbages and used the cultivator, hoe and rake to make a fine tilth.  The hoe was used to take out a drill about 2 cm deep.  They say that the depth of the drill should be about twice that of the seed, however if you mess about worrying about the depth of the drill you would never get any seeds sown.  I plant all my seed at about this depth and they all seem to germinate.  Dilute comfrey liquid was put along the drill to dampen the soil.  The swede seeds were sown when the comfrey liquid had soaked in.  I covered the seeds with a rake and tamped them down.  It is easier to use the right angled rake rather than the rounded tinned rake to do this.  The ground was raked again to make it look pristine.

I  used the rake to measure about 12 inches from the swede line and put the garden line in again for the kohl rabbi.  Then again for the turnips.  They were sown in exactly the same way as the swedes.  Dig a hole and bung them in.

I like to rake the soil where I have been walking to make it look tidy.

Went up to the "leaves" bed and planted some dill and comfrey.  These will be used to make herb teas in the summer.  The Hamburg parsley was planted next to the Boltardy beetroot, which has germinated already.

Finally, I went down to where the pumpkin, oca, tomatoes, sweet corn, courgettes, cucumbers and when I sow them squash will be planted.  I had put some well rotted compost onto the soil and wanted to mix it in.  I used the Mantis Tiller to do this.  With the tiller it took me about 20 minutes.  I do like to have a good fork, however it would have taken me a lot longer particularly with my bad back.

Terry had given me some summer fruiting raspberries and healed them in so I needed to put these into a big pot before I could do any thing.  I also moved the cold frame towards the back of this bed.

Took some left over pea, cabbage and onion seedlings down to the new allotment together with the raspberries.

I planted the raspberries right down at the bottom of the new allotment.  I used up the last of the mychorrhizal fungi in the planting holes.  I don't have any comfrey liquid down at the new allotment so I watered them in with just water.

I planted all the seedlings just in time for the rain to come.  I couldn't have organised it better myself.  So I just have a few seeds to put in at the new allotment and then I am waiting for the seedlings in the greenhouse to get big enough to be put outside.

Tomorrow, I will be at Shrugborough walled garden doing a bit of work.

Planting pea seedlings.

I have found, after many years of experience, that sowing peas directly into the ground is perfectly acceptable unless you have pigeons or mice anywhere in the vicinity. Also you have to have pea seeds that are not prone to slowly rot away in soil.

To be sure of almost 100% germination (there are always a few contrary seeds) I sow in modular trays using a peat free compost and keep them in the greenhouse.   You might call this molly coddling but it is the only way I can get peas to germinate with any sense of responsibility.

My Douce Provenance peas had mostly germinated and been outside hardening off so I decided to take them down to the allotment and plant them.  Also the climbing peas - the ones that had germinated -had also been hardened off out side and were taken to the allotment for planting.  .

I had tilled the soil with the machine but had not put any fertiliser on the new pea bed.  Previously it had the brassicas on and there are still some winter cauliflowers just starting to come now.  They were seriously affected by the cold easterly wind and pigeons eating the new growth of leaves.  I doubt if I will get any reasonably sized curds from them.

I have put up some canes for the climbing peas and this afternoon I attached some old netting to it to make it easier for the peas to climb.  I left a 10 cm. gap at the bottom to enable me to weed around the peas. One line of peas were planted with a little mychorrhizal fungi in some of the holes and watered in with dilute comfrey liquid.

The Douce Provenance peas do not climb so high so they were planted in three rows.  2 inches apart in the row and the rows about 4 inches apart.  I then put chicken wire around the seedlings to make a rectangular box.

Bit like I did here in 2011

People ask me how I pick the peas.  Well I just go in over the top of the chicken wire.  I is perfectly doable.  

There are some Douce Provenance peas seedlings left over so I will put them in in the new allotment.  I have some spare cabbages and Bedfordshire Champion onions to put in the new allotment too.  I will have to take some nets down to the new allotment to keep the birds off the brassicas.  I am not going to net the onions because I want to see how they will be affected by the onion miner fly. I think that its life cycle has been disrupted because it usually hatches out in April and that is when the very cold easterly wind was blowing.  I recon that a lot of them were killed and the onions will be safe without the barriers for at least this year.  

I have some more Alderman climbing peas and Early Onward germinating in the greenhouse.  Eventually I will have about five lines of peas on the old allotment and whatever is left over on the new allotment.  Two large rolls of concrete reinforcement wire were left on the allotment and I thought that I could use these for the climbing peas to grow up.  I am not too sure where to put it so that it does not shade the allotment too much.  There is also quite a bit of chicken wire left on the new allotment which I will use for any peas that I plant there.  

Although I have hurt my back sieve double digging on the new allotment, I had a go at digging the green manure in on the new brassica bed.  Did a couple of rows before I called it a day and went home.  

Finished the sieve double digging.

I have finally finished the sieve double digging for this year.  The allotment secretary asked if I wanted the other half to the new allotment.  It is very untidy with lots of hedge bindweed and horse tail.  However, I said yes.  Fool that I am.  I will cover the ground with the old carpets that I have found and the tarpaulins until I have time to sieve double dig this one too.  I will not do much digging during the summer but it could be a project for the winter.  I don't have to pay for it this year and it would not be cost effective anyway because I could not plant anything on it this year.

There is a small apple tree on this half of the allotment which has been pushed over by a pile of compost.  I am not sure whether it can be straightened or whether straightening it is a good idea.  I am going to double dig up to it and clear the ground around it to have a look and see what I can do.

The banks of soil next to the hedge have been sieved and I have started to rake the soil over the bottom half of the allotment.  I will finish that tomorrow.  I have buried three carpets alongside the hedge to keep the bindweed where it should be - in the hedge.  I have made a pathway along the hedge to where the shed will be moved to.

Tomorrow, after I have raked all the piles of sieved soil over the allotment, I will start to plant shallots, garlic and onions.  I know that it is very late to be planting these but they have been planted  on the old allotment during March and they are doing fine. I want to see how big I can grow the alliums on the old allotment so they are spaced about a foot apart.  It does not give you very many  but they are potentially very big.  The alliums that were left over will give me a succession of alliums later in the year. They will be planted closer together to give a more usual size.

I need to put up the runner bean canes on the new allotment and that will be done after planting alliums.  I will put them across next to the main track for a little privacy during the summer.  I am debating whether to put some climbing peas next to the hedge path.  I am not too sure whether they would survive slugs and snails living in the hedge.

The area next to the hedge path is for red, white and black currants.  I have some red and a lot of black currant cuttings but will have to buy some white currants.  I will have to transplant some more of the strawberries because  they are in the wrong place.  I will put them with the others under the Victoria plum.

I have a pot of teasel seedlings which I will plant under one of the apple trees.  They have a pleasant enough flower and the finches like to eat the seeds.

Talking about finches, I think that the gold and green finches are having all the blossom off the Victoria Plum. I will go and get some bird seed tomorrow in an effort to keep them off the fruit blossom.

I have watered all the seedlings and seeds that I planted last week with dilute comfrey liquid.  I only put a couple of table spoon fulls into a watering can of water but it seems to have a very beneficial effect on all the plants.

Dug over some more of the brassica bed and will plant some kohl rabbi, swede and turnip when I go down there next.

Transplanting seedlings.

Just as you think it is safe to harden off a lot of seedlings the weather changes again - for the worst.  I put five  trays of Douce Provence peas outside yesterday to harden off.  I think that they are hardy enough to take a few nights of cold weather.

The Swift potatoes and oca in pots will have to be put back in the greenhouse because they will not be so hardy.

I definitely need to repair the cold frame so that I can protect the more tender plants.

I pricked out borecole, broccoli, cabbage and kale into trays.  I did not use the sectioned trays because they are all being used for other seedlings.  The roots will be disturbed when I plant them out because they will be entangled with each others.  However, these are fairly robust brassicas and, with copious watering, they will survive well in good soil.

The climbing peas have not germinated very well.  I have potted up the ones that have germinated and will use them but I  have had to resow the Alderman peas.  I don't usually plant climbing peas preferring the smaller ones but this year I wanted to see just how well I could grow them.  If they do well, and they have not impressed me so far, then I will continue to grow them.  Also, the lettuce has not germinated very well.  I think this is due to it being old seed.

Sowed some Early Onward peas, which grow quite well on the allotment; some more lettuce; dwalf French beans saved seeds; runner beans saved seed; sweet corn; cucumber; pumpkin and courgette.

I discovered that I did not have any squash so I have bought some to sow later.

The chard and the perpetual spinach sown on the allotment have germinated already.  Nothing else is showing yet.  I am just hoping that the cold weather at the weekend will not check everything again.

Tried to get a lot more seeds sown.

I may have a tad too many brassicas this year.  I spent all morning transplanting seedlings into pots and trays and I still have some left over.  I am having to ration myself because I have no room in the greenhouse and probably will not be able to fit more than one row of about 19 plants of each.  I hate throwing any away though and I will probably end up giving most of them away.  The only problem with giving plants away is that you never see the pot or label again.  I like to use my pots and labels year after year.  I have quite a collection now.

I pricked out quite a few calabrese and second sowing of All the Year Round cauliflowers.  Running out of labels this time, I had to do some washing.  I write all my labels in pencil because it is much easier to wash off when I have finished with them.  I wash them in washing up liquid and then get any marks off with white spirit.

I have plenty of clean three inch pots but I can see that I will need some more soon.

Started sowing the runner beans.  Only got round to planting about half the Aintree and this year I will need a lot more because I am going to put a double row in the new allotment.

Started to mow the lawn but the newly serviced lawn mower would not start so I took it back to the service man.  He asked me a few questions and then looked at the mower.  Mowers don't work unless you turn the fuel on I have discovered today.  It is a little leaver that I have never noticed before.  Now I know.

Went up to the old allotment to get some sweet peas for my daughter's garden.  While I was there I watered all the seeds and seedlings that I have planted.  I am using the water from the butts, which is quickly running out.  They still haven't turned the water on.

The sweet peas are getting hammered by the slugs and snails so I have resorted to putting down some ferric phosphate.  The night time temperatures need to be a little warmer to enable the plants to grow away.  It is going to be O^oC  again tonight and this is too cold to plant out anything cold sensitive.

I have put lime on the brassica bed but not on the hot bed.  Manure and lime do not mix very well.  The lime will help the brassicas in several ways.  Primarily a high pH suppresses club root disease.  I have not used this brassica bed for the cabbage family before. That means that it has not had brassicas on it for six years at least.  I know that Eric had some turnips on the bed just before I took it over but as I remember it they were quite healthy.  Therefore, I don't think that there are any club root spores on this bed.  However, you cannot be too careful so I am liming.  Last year I added some compost from Fred's mega compost heap.  The compost was lovely, however I could not guarantee that there was no club club root spores in it.

Most of the brassicas have been developed from sea shore plants which are adapted to high pH so providing them with a root environment that they are particularly adapted to will enable them to produce healthy plants.

Lime introduces calcium into the soil which is a nutrient.  It does not leach out of the soil easily so it does not need to be added too regularly.  I am putting lime on the soil every year but only on the brassica bed which means that each bed gets lime every six years due to the rotation.

Lime does help to make a good friable soil by flocculating clay particles to make larger particles.  It also helps to bind together particles that include organic matter.

I add a lot of organic matter to the soil and this tends to lower the pH.  Lime helps to maintain the pH between 6.5 and 7  which is a good average growing pH.

I scattered the lime over the green manure and will dig them in together.