This year's sweet peas.

I have ordered my sweet peas from Roger Parsons Sweet Peas.

2015's  varieties are:

• White Frills

White Frills

• Doreen
• Gwendoline

Gwendolin

• Yvette Ann - may have to be replaced by another pink variety.
• Daily Mail
• Mark Harrod
• Windsor
• Joyce Stanton
• Just Julia
• Andrew Cavendish
• Ethyl Grace
• Jacqueline Ann
• Bristol
• Charlie's Angels
• Oban Bay.  

I will be sowing them in January this year and keeping them in the greenhouse until March when I will plant them out in their permanent positions.  Roger Parsons sells the seeds in packets of ten, so if all the seeds germinate and all the seedlings survive, I will have 150 plants.  I have grown White frills; Gwendoline; Daily Mail; Windsor; Ethyl Grace; Bristol; Charlie's angels and Oban Bay before but the others will be new.  I am concentrating on the blues in 2015 - just for interest.

As I was working today, I have not done too much down the allotment.  The nights are drawing in far too quickly now and, just when you have started to do something, suddenly it is dark.

Dug a little more topsoil out of the trench and sieved it.  Took the subsoil down to the hole by the shed and tipped it.  Dug the topsoil out of the main path, sieved it and put it into the trench to replace the subsoil.  Filled the hole in the path with the subsoil and stones taken out when I made the hot bed.  This subsoil is in the way of the main trench going across the allotment so I will continue to make a new path with it just to get it out of the way.  I reckon that this might take some time because the path is so infested with perennial weeds.

There is an awful amount of mare's tail and bindweed in the path which had to be sieved out.  I did about 2 foot square, one spit deep and it virtually took all the time I had at the allotment to clean out the topsoil.

This is what the allotment looked like
on November 19th 2013

I had dug further down the allotment in 2013 than I have on the new half this year.  The new half allotment is not quite as untidy as the one in the photograph so will be dug quicker with any luck.

I want to plant the currants and rhubarb in their permanent places as soon as possible so I will have to get a move on trenching the new half allotment.  The rhubarb is still growing in the Mount Road allotment so will have to be transported to this allotment during the winter.

So the idea is to improve the soil with the addition of organic matter.  You can either do this by trenching or by mulching, however there is nothing to stop you doing both.

Continuing to raise the allotment with trench Hugelkultur (2)

Before continuing with the trench Hugelkultur, the apple sions that have been taken from neighbouring allotments had to be stored away.  These were wrapped in polythene bags and buried in a cool part of the allotment.  A cane with a label on indicated where the sions were buried.
The sions were 'James Grieve'; 'Saturn'; 'Greensleves'; 'Egremont Russet'; and 'Braeburn'.  Not necessarily the ones that I would have chosen but beggars can't be choosers.  These will be used to graft onto the M9 and M26 rootstock.

After this, the new currant bushes were healed in.   Blackcurrant 'Ebony' and 'Ben Connan'; redcurrant 'Rovada' and white currant 'Blanka'.  These will be moved to their permanent positions when the ground has been dug over.

I took about one square metre; one spit deep of subsoil out of the bottom of the trench and used it to make more pathway by the shed.  Carting waterlogged clay subsoil is not my idea of a pleasant activity but it had to be done.

Due to the wet weather, the water table has
risen and water is collecting in the trench.

The subsoil has not been taken out of the trench in the photograph. The cardboard that was taken out with the subsoil was returned to the bottom of the trench. Cardboard does not last very long on the allotment before it decomposes.  I add it to the trenches whenever I have some handy.

As the bottom of the trench was so waterlogged, it was not forked over very well.  I was relying on breaking up the bottom of the trench with the spade when subsoil was being taken out.    I did not stand in the trench as I usually do because I would have sunk in the water clay mix at the bottom.  There were many rhizomes of mare's tail in the subsoil and these were removed as much as possible.

Decaying processed wooden planks were
put at the bottom of the trench. 

The decaying wooden planks were put at the bottom of the trench.  I used planks like this last year when trenching the other part of the allotment and there was no problem with nitrogen depletion. The ends of the planks were very fibrous and broke apart in my hands.  This spongy material will absorb water and release it when the soil is dry.

Covering the planks was a layer of hawthorn and ivy.

Hawthorn and ivy brushwood.

I cut this brushwood from the hedge at the bottom of the allotment using the loppers.  However, there is not much left for the next trench so I will have to search around for more elsewhere on the allotment site.  I threw in some more processed wood too.  There is a plastic catch on the wood at the top of the pile.  I took this off and put it in the rubbish tub to be buried at the back of the shed.  I don't really want any plastic in the growing area trenches and actively remove any that I find.

The brushwood was covered with a six inch layer of woody ash tree shreddings.

Ash tree shreddings

These shreddings were watered with concentrated comfrey liquid before being covered with topsoil sieved from the paths by the shed mixed with a little chicken manure.

Path topsoil added to trench.

The path topsoil was very friable and had a lot of decayed wood shreddings in it.  It should be quite fertile because nothing but mare's tail and bindweed has been growing in it for many years.

Over the topsoil I put a layer of farmyard manure and then covered it with the sieved topsoil from the trench.  This has given me about 18-24 inches of good top soil over the trench Hugelkultur, which will produce some good vegetables.  I am planning to plant ridged cucumbers here next year.

The little greenhouse is slowly sinking into the ground because of the trenching I have done around it.  The glass will have to be taken out and the greenhouse frame raised level again.  However, I will not do this until the topsoil has settled.

It does not seem that I have done much today but I had to cut the hedge back to provide some brushwood; dig out and sieve the path topsoil;  dig out the subsoil and put it into the hole I made in the path and level everything with the rake.

And I want to do this over the whole allotment?  Well I did for the other part of the allotment.

This is where the new currant plants are going to to be planted as a hedge to divide the curbit bed from the brassica bed.  Currants appreciate a deep root run so they will do well in trenched topsoil.

Espalier Pruning

Sometimes it is just good to leave plants to their own devices rather than prune them unnecessarily. However, if you are pruning to make and maintain a particular shape such as cordon or espalier then it is unavoidable.

So if we follow the RHS advice, and I rarely do that, pruning involves 3DXU, which stands for dead, diseased and damaged; crossing and untypical.

Once these factors have been dealt with then we can concentrate on the form of the plant and what we want it to look like.

Pruning long produces massive amounts of new growth.  In other words if you cut large chunks off trees it promotes the production of long stems or branches.

Willow sculpture.

The willow in this sculpture has been pruned long and has thrown up multiple new stems showing quite clearly what pruning hard does to trees.

This kind of growth on fruit trees like apples and pears is not fruitful.  What is needed are the small fruiting spurs which develop on mature wood and, to encourage these to form, we prune short. Pruning short is just taking off the ends of branches to a maximum of about five buds leaving the rest of the branch to mature and throw off fruiting spurs the length of the stem.  

So, if the tree throws up vigourous stems during the summer, like the willow in the photograph, cutting the branches long will just encourage more long, fruitless, whippy branches. Sorting out this confusion will be a time consuming winter task.  

There are several ways of dealing with vigourous growth.  If it is in an area of the tree that needs a new branch it can be pruned short taking the end off the branch by about five buds. If pruning to espalier or fan, branches  can  be tied in during the summer and  lowered into their fruiting position in the winter.    Lowering vigourous branches to the near horizontal will slow their growth and help them produce fruiting spurs. Weak stems, that could fill spaces, can be tied in vertically to encourage them to grow more vigourously. Usually the lowest branches seem to be the weakest and these can be strengthened by leaving them to grow as upright as possible until they attain length and vigour enough to be tied in horizontally.

Sometimes vigourous growth needs to be cut back to the collar next to the main stem in the summer.  If this has to be done to prevent confusion, then new buds that will inevitably be produced should be rubbed off after they have pushed their way through the bark.   Similarly any woody branches that grow away from or towards the wall should be removed.

When we are trying to produce an espalier, we want branches to be produced at regular intervals along the main stem.  When two horizontal, lateral branches have been produced near the bottom of the tree that can be tied in to the left and right, the main stem can be cut back long to 4 or 5 buds to produce two woody laterals that can be tied in the next year.  One bud can be allowed to grow on vertically to produce a stem, which can provide the next years laterals. Superfluous growth can then be cut back long to their main stem collar.  The horizontal laterals should be about a hand span apart to allow light and air to get to the foliage and fruit.

The horizontals can be left to grow on without any pruning until they fill the space allotted to them. Only then will they have to be pruned short.    

A combination of good sensible cuts and raising and lowering branches will produce a good looking, espalier tree that is very high yielding.

Seed order from Kings Seed Nursery has come.

The seeds ordered from Kings Seed Nursery have come now.  If you are a member of The National Allotment Society then Kings will give you a hefty discount which is much appreciated.

The seed order included Elephant Garlic; softneck garlic "Solent Wight" and shallots "Golden Gourmet".

"Golden Gourmet" shallots have a RHS award, are high yielding and store well.  This is the first time I have grown this variety so I hope that they will do well in my allotment.  I have not grown "Solent Wight" very often but they are a good long storing garlic.

I just hope I can grow ""Solent Wight" as big as the Garlic Farm does.  (Kings must
get their garlic from the Garlic Farm)

The soil for these alliums had been prepared several days ago. The spent French beans haulms were dug in together with a little farmyard manure.  The topsoil was sieved because the potatoes were growing next to the beans and I cannot abide the missed tubers growing again in the middle of the onion bed.  Hopefully, I have sieved out all the little ones.

I washed the greenhouse glass before planting any of the alliums.  Some of the glass was stored on the ground before the greenhouse was constructed and got very muddy.  This time of the year you want as much light entering the greenhouse as possible so cleaning is important.  I was treading on the ground I wanted to plant the alliums in so it was a case of "I have to do this before I do that" which is often the case when managing an allotment.

The elephant garlic was planted next to the greenhouse with a trowel twelve inches apart and twelve inches between rows. The bulbs were planted just below the soil surface.  Topsoil was raked over them and the ground levelled.  One row of these vegetables will be more than enough for me.

Kings' elephant garlic.  

The "Solent Wight" and the shallots were planted in the next rows in a similar way but only six inches apart.  The greenhouse will shade the alliums in the morning but by about 11 o'clock in the morning they will be in full sun for the rest of the day.  This may affect the yield slightly but I need the rest of the bed for onions and leeks.

The "Mammoth" onion seeds have germinated in the hot bed frame and have been pricked out into individual 3 inch pots.  I was not expecting very many to germinate because they were last year's seeds.  However, they all seemed to have grown.

A multipurpose compost was used as the growing medium and this seems to be to their liking because they are already forming their second leaves.  These onions grow very big but they are useless for storing and will be used during the summer for cooking and salads.

The other onion seed will probably be sown during  January/February time in the hot bed frame. The leeks will be sown during April because I like to have these maturing in winter.

I've just looked on the RHS site for recommended spacing distances and found that I have planted a little closer than is recommended.  I'm not bothered.  I like some big vegetables, just to show off but medium sized veg tastes the same.  I must admit that I use the trowels to measure planting distances so really the alliums are one trowel or half a trowel apart in the rows.  The rows are one trowel apart.

The rule is, if you want a rule, the further apart the bigger the plants; the nearer the smaller the plants.  This is all within reason.  There is an optimum distance apart for vegetables to grow well and any larger spacings will not achieve any greater yield.

The new sweet pea bed was sown with a green manure mix of tares, crimson clover and rye grass. The mice have been eating the green manure seeds so I do not have as much as I thought I would. However, planting the seed in rows rather than broadcast means that it is going a lot further than expected.  I will have some for the new allotment although it is getting very late to sow winter green manure now.  I wasn't going to bother sowing green manure here because the soil has farmyard manure dug into it, however I was not going to use the green manure for anything else and it is not doing anything in the seed packet so sowing seemed the best option.

I have decided to leave the new roots and leafy vegetable bed uncovered during the winter.  The green manure has been dug in and farmyard manure added to where the leafy vegetables are going to grow.  I have avoided putting farmyard manure on the area where the root vegetables are going to grow to avoid their roots forking.  Forking roots taste the same as the straight ones but take longer to prepare when cooking.  So, this bed has the old broad bean and pea haulms; green manure; chicken manure and farmyard manure dug in to the top soil.  This needs time to decompose and release nutrients into the soil.  Leaving the soil rough dug and exposed will help to break it up and rot down the added manures.

The old wooden lean too has been moved off the ground I am digging and put further down the allotment to cover weeds.  I will break this up and either use it for biochar burning or burying in the digging trenches.  There are still bits and bobs of wood left on this part of the allotment so I am collecting them up and putting them all together by the compost heap.  If it dries off I will biochar it during December.

I have dug out some subsoil and put it on the path by the shed so that I can add brushwood, shredded woody material and topsoil to the trench tomorrow.  I think that I am getting down to old red sandstone bedrock on some parts of the trench.  Not something that I have experienced before because I have always gardened on a thick subsoil layer of clay.  It will not alter my strategy even though it is very difficult to break up.

More trenching tomorrow.
Also order the sweet peas...

Hugelkultur - burying woody material. (1)

Spent quite some time digging on the allotment today.  The trenching on allotment 3A is going well if a little slowly.  The top spit of soil is being sieved carefully with a little chicken manure.  The second spit, clay subsoil is being taken out and put into the wheelbarrow. This subsoil is being used to make the paths where the topsoil has been removed.  The path top soil is being used in the trenches to replace the removed subsoil. The theory of replacing top soil for subsoil on the paths is to produce a path that is less likely to encourage weed growth. I am mixing in a good quantity of stones sieved from the topsoil to the path subsoil to make a more substantial and long lasting construction. The Victorian gardeners used clay and sandy subsoils to make their kitchen garden paths and I wanted to see if I could make as good a job of it as they did.  The paths at Attingham Park in Shropshire are a clay stone construction - particularly the one running along the river from the mansion.

The bottom of the trench is being forked over a spit deep before anything is added.

This trench hole has a layer of  Hedera helix and Corylus avellana prunings from the hedge. Other trench holes will have Crataegus monogyna prunings added to the bottom spit.

Ivy prunings together with hazel twigs.

The coarsest woody material goes at the bottom.  This is probably best because it keeps it out of the way when the top soil is being cultivated.   This material has a lot of air spaces in it and the increased porosity introduced to the subsoil will enable excess water to drain away quickly.  The woody material itself will become more and more absorbent as it begins to decay retaining water and releasing it to the crop plant's roots when the soil is dry.

Shredded ash tree

A load of mainly Fraxinus excelsior was delivered last week and is being added to the trenches. About six inches of shreddings is covering the Hedera helix brushwood.  About 18 inches of top soil is then raked over the shreddings.

Shreddings nearly fill the trench

This procedure raises the level of the topsoil surface about 6 to 10 inches higher than the original level.  

In most descriptions Hugelkultur is a single row of logs or brushwood with top soil heaped over them to make a humped raised bed.  There is a great deal of anecdotal evidence that this is a fairly effective method of producing a bed in which vegetables can grow well.  If it works for raised beds like this then it will work throughout the allotment garden.  The whole allotment is being or has been trenched like this and woody material added to the subsoil raising the level of the topsoil. Extra topsoil from the paths is also being added to raise the level of the topsoil further.  

I don't raise beds with Hugelkultur; I raise whole allotment gardens.  

The next trench hole had composted bindweed, mare's tail and couch grass added with some rotten wooden planks thrown on top.  10 inches of shredded ash tree covered the planks.  Now it may be dangerous to add perennial weeds like these to the trench even if they have been composted for some time.  However, they had made some particularly friable compost and not using this to improve the soil would be perverse.  

So I am giving it a go just to see if any of the weeds return to haunt me.  If they do then I will have to dig them out but that is no different to what I am doing now with the trench digging.  

From my experience it would seem that processed wood is just as good as logs, branches, brushwood and shreddings for making Hugelkultur beds.   Any useless decaying processed wooden planks are being added to the Hugelkultur trenches as additional carbon sources.  

I have moved one of the blue water butts to the end of the little greenhouse to catch more water from the gutters.  I have put a rope from the gutters to the bin because the water will follow and flow down the ropes into the water butts.  

On Saturday I will continue trenching with Hugelkultur until I run out of wood chippings.