It may be a little early to start transplanting asparagus but they needed moving because the walled garden at Shugborough Hall Staffordshire is being redesigned. As the soil had been well manured the previous autumn I just forked the soil over and leveled it with a rake. The soil is still quite heavy due to the rain over winter.
The asparagus plants are quite old and were easily divided. Plants this old do not like to be transplanted and they may not produce good spears for a couple of years. However, it is still worth a try. Asparagus has not been grown in this part of the garden for over 100 years so there is a chance that they will be able to grow quite well. It would have been better to buy in new, one year old named varieties because they will crop much better particularly in new ground. I would have also liked to put some mychorrhizal fungi in with the plant roots. However, digging up some of the dandelions; Taraxacum officinale there were mychorrhiza all over them and these might find their way onto the asparagus roots.
I moved the Shgborough rhubarb in February and put some rhubarb forcing pots over them. After that, I put some good farmyard manure over the whole bed. The rhubarb has just started to grow and the leaf stems are quite large in the forcing pots. The gardeners were a little concerned that there might be some evil chemicals in the straw from the cattle manure. Well, if there is, there is a much more concentrated amount of these chemicals in the cattle themselves and people eat the cow meat...
On the allotments, I have put old, black, plastic dustbins over the rhubarb to force it. Again they are beginning to grow well and produce some good petioles. I have put some more horse manure onto the old allotment mulching the blackcurrants. I like to do this every year and this year I remembered to give them a good dose of comfrey liquid before putting the mulch around. I haven't put any horse manure around the rhubarb on the old allotment because they had a good dose of compost last autumn. However, if there is any left in the bins by the gate next week I might put a thin layer over them. The rhubarb at the new allotment has been planted in the soil I manured with pigeon muck and that definitely does not need any extra manure.
I put a large pile of horse manure onto the brassica bed to make a hot bed for the cauliflowers. I turned it a couple of times to put some air in it so that it would heat up. The pile was also watered with comfrey liquid. I will dig a trench and put the manure at the bottom then cover the pile with top soil.
The grazing rye and tares that I planted in the autumn seems to have died off and needs to be dug into the top soil. It will easily break down releasing nutrients just in time for planting out the new vegetable plants. I think that I will empty the two compost heaps again and spread that over the pumpkin and squash bed and the leaf vegetable bed. These beds do not really need any more organic matter in them but you can't have too much of a good thing.
I am still triple, sieve digging the new allotment and the soil is looking quite good even though I say it myself. Very satisfying when you put this much work into it. However, it does not matter how good it looks because to be of merit it must sustainably produce good harvests. I have about 15 foot by 25 foot still to do and I will start to do this at the weekend. I want to finish the digging before I start to do anything else.
I will be grafting again tomorrow. I am still practicing so that I get it right when I do it seriously. I have got some M27 apple root stock and I am going to graft on some heritage apple scions. I have not grafted before and it is a skill that needs a lot of practice. I am quite optimistic about grafting though and if it is not successful I will try budding in the summer. I have some St. Julien A suckers that have grown from the plum on the new allotment. I am going to grow these on and have a go at budding during July and August.
I really need to start to sow some seeds but this cold weather is not encouraging me to do it. Maybe towards the end of the month would be a better time.
Friday, 15 March 2013
Monday, 11 March 2013
Cold weather has returned
I was just about to start sowing celeriac, and celery but the weather has turned very cold again. I think that the seed sowing will have to wait until this cold snap is over. I need to sow some lettuce, early peas, cabbage, and cauliflower too but they need the weather to be a little more clement to be successful.
However, this gives me time to continue with the sieve digging that I am doing on the new allotment. There is not a lot more to do but it is quite unpleasant with a cold north easterly wind blowing. As the allotment boundary slopes at the bottom I will finish one side before the other. The ground has not been dug in this area before by the looks of things but I think that I will double dig closer to the hedge. The hedge will not be damaged and whether I use this area or not it will remove the Calystegia sepium which will be an irritation if it is not removed.
People ask me how my allotment looks so good in the summer. The reason it does so well is down to the preparation that takes place during the winter. Double and triple digging mixing in lots of organic matter will enable the plants to develop good deep root systems that will sustain them during the summer.
While I have been digging at the new allotment, I have seen very few people working on their allotments. Most will fork over the soil in the spring and sow and plant in soil that is not well mixed and full of weed seeds. To get a worthwhile harvest from an allotment, you have to put the work in and turn the soil over.
I will not neglect the old allotment but with the cold weather there is little to do. The next jobs will be to plant out the onion seedlings and the seed potatoes. Any left over will be put onto the new allotment.
I have not worked out the beds and the rotation system on the new allotment yet but that will be done after I have dug the whole area and can see how much room I have. After planting out the rest of the soft fruit, I don't think that there will be that much room.
I will probably have room enough for a row of runner beans and these will probably be put along the east side of the allotment so that they do not shade the other plants. I have some tall peas which I will plant alongside the runner beans. I have some old concrete reinforcing mesh that will be ideal for growing them up. It is about 5 ft. in height and 10 ft long. I will use some fence posts to support it tied in with garden wire. I don't like making permanent structures on the allotment because I may need to change the design of the garden. Lots of people like to make permanent supports for their runner beans but I like to rotate them. Even though they can be planted in the same ground successfully for several years, they can be useful in adding nitrogen to the soil because they form a symbiosis with nitrogen fixing bacteria.
There was quite a lot of chicken wire on the allotment which seemed associated with various compost heaps. It was covered in Calystegia sepium and I don't think that the previous tenants of the allotment were prepared to take the time to untangle it so they could take it away. I will use this to support the garden peas.
However, this gives me time to continue with the sieve digging that I am doing on the new allotment. There is not a lot more to do but it is quite unpleasant with a cold north easterly wind blowing. As the allotment boundary slopes at the bottom I will finish one side before the other. The ground has not been dug in this area before by the looks of things but I think that I will double dig closer to the hedge. The hedge will not be damaged and whether I use this area or not it will remove the Calystegia sepium which will be an irritation if it is not removed.
People ask me how my allotment looks so good in the summer. The reason it does so well is down to the preparation that takes place during the winter. Double and triple digging mixing in lots of organic matter will enable the plants to develop good deep root systems that will sustain them during the summer.
While I have been digging at the new allotment, I have seen very few people working on their allotments. Most will fork over the soil in the spring and sow and plant in soil that is not well mixed and full of weed seeds. To get a worthwhile harvest from an allotment, you have to put the work in and turn the soil over.
I will not neglect the old allotment but with the cold weather there is little to do. The next jobs will be to plant out the onion seedlings and the seed potatoes. Any left over will be put onto the new allotment.
I have not worked out the beds and the rotation system on the new allotment yet but that will be done after I have dug the whole area and can see how much room I have. After planting out the rest of the soft fruit, I don't think that there will be that much room.
I will probably have room enough for a row of runner beans and these will probably be put along the east side of the allotment so that they do not shade the other plants. I have some tall peas which I will plant alongside the runner beans. I have some old concrete reinforcing mesh that will be ideal for growing them up. It is about 5 ft. in height and 10 ft long. I will use some fence posts to support it tied in with garden wire. I don't like making permanent structures on the allotment because I may need to change the design of the garden. Lots of people like to make permanent supports for their runner beans but I like to rotate them. Even though they can be planted in the same ground successfully for several years, they can be useful in adding nitrogen to the soil because they form a symbiosis with nitrogen fixing bacteria.
There was quite a lot of chicken wire on the allotment which seemed associated with various compost heaps. It was covered in Calystegia sepium and I don't think that the previous tenants of the allotment were prepared to take the time to untangle it so they could take it away. I will use this to support the garden peas.
Saturday, 2 March 2013
Towards the busy time in the allotment
I have planted out the broad beans, shallots and garlic that I started in the greenhouse. I was going to cover the broad beans with plastic cloches but I don't think they need it. The cloches are not doing anything at the moment except languishing in the store shed so I might get them out to cover something. I will want them for the early lettuce and they can easily be moved.
Some good horse manure was delivered to the allotment but I wasn't going to use any. After everyone had had a share there was still a big pile so I changed my mind and took some. Although the potato bed had green manure on it, it really needed a little more organic matter to bulk it up. It was covered with a 4-6 cm layer of manure all over. Together with the green manure and comfrey liquid, I think that this will be sufficient for the potatoes. I will be planting them with mychorrhizal fungi too but this will be later in March. I have a wide selection of early potatoes this year and they will go in this bed while the second earlies, Kestrel, will go in the new allotment. The new allotment potato bed has been triple dug, sieved and pigeon manure added. This ground was also sown with a rye tares green manure which will be dug in a week or two before I plant the potatoes.
I am hardening off some of the onion seedlings and exhibition broad beans and these will be planted in the old allotment until I run out of space. The mammoth onions and the big leeks have germinated and need to be pricked out into individual pots this week.
The cabbage and cauliflower seedlings are growing well but they will be kept in the greenhouse until the middle of March and then hardened off in the cold frame which will be repaired by then - hopefully.
It is all right germinating the seeds but keeping them alive is quite difficult especially as the night temperatures regularly go down to just above freezing.
I have tomato and peppers germinated and producing quite large seedlings now but whether they will last until they can be put into the allotment remains to be seen.
I will be using my trusty little paraffin heater but that will only just keep the temperature in the greenhouse above freezing during very cold nights.
The cold does not seem to affect the sweet pea seedlings and they are germinating well. I will have to pinch them out fairly soon.
On the new allotment I have planted out another apple tree "Discovery" on M9 rootstock, a plum "Opal" and a pear - I forget the name but it is a French one.
The Victoria plum has set off some suckers from the roots. It is probably on St Julien root stock and these will make good root stocks for new trees. They are just heeled in at the moment but they will be planted and possibly budded during the summer.
The new raspberries and gooseberries are just heeled in too and will need to be planted in their permanent positions soon. They will not fruit this year but they should grow away during the year and be big enough for fruit next year. I am still planting them in concentric semi circles around the established Victoria plum and the next line of strawberries has gone in. I have enough strawberries for another line but I don't think that I will need them. I hate putting good plants on the compost heap though.
I have double dug and sieved all the soil down to the shed now. There is about 15 feet of digging still to do. As I go along the shed there is less soil to dig over so it is taking less time to do a row. Also I have run out of things to bury or mix in so the digging now takes much less time. The thing that is taking the time is getting things out of the way so that I can have a clear run. The next thing I will have to move is the makeshift compost heap. I will move the pallets up to the front of the allotment and make a new compost heap there and that will be right out of the way. After that it is moving the stones to make a really good foundation for the shed and finally moving the shed.
After that it is back to the greenhouse and doing some serious seed sowing. Middle of March will be the sowing of the parsnips. However, before I can do this I will have to dig in the green manure on the roots bed. I will do this fairly soon because a lot of the roots can be sown from the middle to the end of March.
So, busy times ahead.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Sowing seeds and transplanting seedlings.
There were several different things that I wanted to sow, plant and transplant so this morning was spent in the cold greenhouse. I started a little late because I had lost my seeds. I forgot that I had put them into an old tin. I should get one of these commercial tins that are labelled SEEDS.
The first things that were planted were the potatoes. I have some Swift that are supposed to grow quickly. I planted them in fairly small pots mainly because I am using the larger pots to support the trays under the staging. (Using the large trays gives me another shelf to keep pots on.) The potatoes were planted into Gro Char multipurpose compost which contains both charcoal and mychorrhizal fungi among other things. As they get bigger, I will transplant them into the big pots. I am growing them as an example of a South American crop rather than to get a big yield so I think that my large pots will be big enough. I will keep these in the cold greenhouse because I do not want them to grow any faster than they would do normally.
Next to be sown were some more Aintree Phaseolus vulgaris. I thought that the show garden border would be 1 square metre but it turns out to be 3 metres square, which means that I will need more plants. Also, to be able to select the best plants, I will need a number of plants to choose from. This all goes to encouraging me to plant a lot more than I really need. I will put these in the heated greenhouse to bring them on so that they are at least flowering in June. I would like them to have some fruit on them too if possible but this is unlikely.
There was still some of the Gro Char general purpose compost left and the bag was torn so I decided to use it up by sowing the rest of the sweet peas.
Finally I pricked out the cabbages into a sectioned tray. I have no small pots left at all and will have to transplant into sectioned trays until I eventually plant out some of the vegetables in the allotments.
I am meeting the RHS people tomorrow to chat about the show garden; to see what is involved and consider whether I still want to take this on and to consider a design. I am the first to admit that I am not a very good designer so the whole process will be quite a challenge.
I also have to plant a tree, to demonstrate that I can, for my level 3 Practical Gardening Certificate. As I have three trees waiting to be planted, I will be waiting with bated breath for any feed back on my feeble attempt. It will be good to know whether the technique that I have been using over the past 50 years is up to scratch.
I also have to identify some seeds - something that I was quite interested in doing. However, it involves identifying things like conkers and acorns. I have to know the Latin name for them - but even so. (It is Aesculus hippocastanum and Quercus robur respectively.)
Completing the greenhouse work and after having another cup of tea, I started to do a little more pruning. I use the RHS 3dxu formula for pruning, which is as effective as any. It certainly makes me remember what to do. Remove dead, diseased and damaged then crossing branches and finally untypical foliage. However, just as I started so did the rain.
Rather than get soaked, I decided to come in and learn my seed ident.
The first things that were planted were the potatoes. I have some Swift that are supposed to grow quickly. I planted them in fairly small pots mainly because I am using the larger pots to support the trays under the staging. (Using the large trays gives me another shelf to keep pots on.) The potatoes were planted into Gro Char multipurpose compost which contains both charcoal and mychorrhizal fungi among other things. As they get bigger, I will transplant them into the big pots. I am growing them as an example of a South American crop rather than to get a big yield so I think that my large pots will be big enough. I will keep these in the cold greenhouse because I do not want them to grow any faster than they would do normally.
Next to be sown were some more Aintree Phaseolus vulgaris. I thought that the show garden border would be 1 square metre but it turns out to be 3 metres square, which means that I will need more plants. Also, to be able to select the best plants, I will need a number of plants to choose from. This all goes to encouraging me to plant a lot more than I really need. I will put these in the heated greenhouse to bring them on so that they are at least flowering in June. I would like them to have some fruit on them too if possible but this is unlikely.
There was still some of the Gro Char general purpose compost left and the bag was torn so I decided to use it up by sowing the rest of the sweet peas.
Finally I pricked out the cabbages into a sectioned tray. I have no small pots left at all and will have to transplant into sectioned trays until I eventually plant out some of the vegetables in the allotments.
I am meeting the RHS people tomorrow to chat about the show garden; to see what is involved and consider whether I still want to take this on and to consider a design. I am the first to admit that I am not a very good designer so the whole process will be quite a challenge.
I also have to plant a tree, to demonstrate that I can, for my level 3 Practical Gardening Certificate. As I have three trees waiting to be planted, I will be waiting with bated breath for any feed back on my feeble attempt. It will be good to know whether the technique that I have been using over the past 50 years is up to scratch.
I also have to identify some seeds - something that I was quite interested in doing. However, it involves identifying things like conkers and acorns. I have to know the Latin name for them - but even so. (It is Aesculus hippocastanum and Quercus robur respectively.)
Completing the greenhouse work and after having another cup of tea, I started to do a little more pruning. I use the RHS 3dxu formula for pruning, which is as effective as any. It certainly makes me remember what to do. Remove dead, diseased and damaged then crossing branches and finally untypical foliage. However, just as I started so did the rain.
Rather than get soaked, I decided to come in and learn my seed ident.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Winter digging.
It is all right getting over to the allotment early but it means that you have to dig for even longer. I arrived at the allotment round about 8:45 and inspected the digging done yesterday.
I am still trench triple digging adding brushwood to the lowest layer. However, I have run out of brushwood to bury. I have taken the hedge back as far as is sensible and even worked back behind the old compost heap. I have also used most of the old compost and all of the pigeon manure.
I still have a little pruning to do in the garden, however after this there will be nothing to bury. I am not too bothered now because it is getting towards the planting season and I want to finish before the end of February. So, I have decided to carry on double trench digging. I will still sieve; primarily to get stones for the path and shed foundations but I will not worry about burying. If prunings come to hand then it will be easy to revert to the triple digging.
One of the beds was quite heavily manured before I took on the allotment and this is being mixed into the top soil.
Having so much Calystegia sepium and Equisetum arvensis is really slowing me down but the sieving using the bread tray is very effective in removing the rhizomes. They seem to be growing through an old pile of leaves that has virtually rotted away. I do not want to loose any of this fibrous leaf mould so I am carefully extracting rhizomes wherever I find them.
I cannot stop using the sieve because there are so many rhizomes growing right into the beds and you cannot be sure where they are. I will just keep going regardless.
I had walked over to the new allotment and gotten myself tired so I was not inclined to bring home the bindweed and mare's tail rhizomes which I was going to photograph for this blog. However I will at some time.
It is all right me talking about these rhizomes but, if you don't know what they look like, it will be difficult to make sure you get them out. They are very pernicious and spread everywhere.
I have taken the tarpaulins off the soil and put them into the lean too next to the shed and I am slowly putting all the carpets onto the next door allotment. I am hoping that this will keep the weeds from growing and spreading to my allotment.
The next door allotment does not seem to have been done for about three years at least. I think that someone is paying rent for it but I will dig it over if they do not do anything with it this year.
I pricked out all the tomatoes, sweet corn, pumpkins, squashes, and beans into Gro Char charcoal compost. They are still in the hot house and will stay there until they get a little bigger. This is the first time that I have sown some of these tender vegetables this early in the year but I need them to at least be in flower for the show garden in June. Whether I will be successful remains to be seen, however I am quite enjoying having a go. It is not whether you can get these seeds to germinate; it is whether you can keep them alive during the cold weather. I really need some propagation lights to ensure that they are flowering around the middle of June. I am going to give them a good dose of comfrey liquid twice a week to see if that will bring them on.
I pricked out the cauliflower in the cold house and remarkably they seem to have survived the cold weather. I am hoping to grow these quite large. My big cabbages still need to be pricked out into three inch pots. I will do that tomorrow. Also, I have some Swift early potatoes that I was going to put into charcoal compost for the show garden and I really should plant them now and keep them in the heated green house. Swift will grow very quickly and possibly be in flower for the middle of June. I will also plant some later to make sure that they do not come too soon.
The rest of the onions need to be sown now and I will make a second sowing of leeks. If I can keep the Phytomyza gymnostoma off them I might get some decent sized ones this year. I am going to cover them all with a large enviromesh supported by water pipes. It looks a bit unsightly but it is effective.
I really need to get up to the old allotment and plant the broad beans, shallots and garlic. I have some plastic cloches so these will be used to give them a little more protection.
Now that the weather has got a lot warmer, I will plant the rest of the sweet peas. I might even have a go at sowing them in some of the Gro Char charcoal compost. The sweet peas that I planted in December have started to germinate. The cold weather did not do them any harm.
So lots to do and the season has not really begun yet.
I am still trench triple digging adding brushwood to the lowest layer. However, I have run out of brushwood to bury. I have taken the hedge back as far as is sensible and even worked back behind the old compost heap. I have also used most of the old compost and all of the pigeon manure.
I still have a little pruning to do in the garden, however after this there will be nothing to bury. I am not too bothered now because it is getting towards the planting season and I want to finish before the end of February. So, I have decided to carry on double trench digging. I will still sieve; primarily to get stones for the path and shed foundations but I will not worry about burying. If prunings come to hand then it will be easy to revert to the triple digging.
One of the beds was quite heavily manured before I took on the allotment and this is being mixed into the top soil.
Having so much Calystegia sepium and Equisetum arvensis is really slowing me down but the sieving using the bread tray is very effective in removing the rhizomes. They seem to be growing through an old pile of leaves that has virtually rotted away. I do not want to loose any of this fibrous leaf mould so I am carefully extracting rhizomes wherever I find them.
I cannot stop using the sieve because there are so many rhizomes growing right into the beds and you cannot be sure where they are. I will just keep going regardless.
I had walked over to the new allotment and gotten myself tired so I was not inclined to bring home the bindweed and mare's tail rhizomes which I was going to photograph for this blog. However I will at some time.
It is all right me talking about these rhizomes but, if you don't know what they look like, it will be difficult to make sure you get them out. They are very pernicious and spread everywhere.
I have taken the tarpaulins off the soil and put them into the lean too next to the shed and I am slowly putting all the carpets onto the next door allotment. I am hoping that this will keep the weeds from growing and spreading to my allotment.
The next door allotment does not seem to have been done for about three years at least. I think that someone is paying rent for it but I will dig it over if they do not do anything with it this year.
I pricked out all the tomatoes, sweet corn, pumpkins, squashes, and beans into Gro Char charcoal compost. They are still in the hot house and will stay there until they get a little bigger. This is the first time that I have sown some of these tender vegetables this early in the year but I need them to at least be in flower for the show garden in June. Whether I will be successful remains to be seen, however I am quite enjoying having a go. It is not whether you can get these seeds to germinate; it is whether you can keep them alive during the cold weather. I really need some propagation lights to ensure that they are flowering around the middle of June. I am going to give them a good dose of comfrey liquid twice a week to see if that will bring them on.
I pricked out the cauliflower in the cold house and remarkably they seem to have survived the cold weather. I am hoping to grow these quite large. My big cabbages still need to be pricked out into three inch pots. I will do that tomorrow. Also, I have some Swift early potatoes that I was going to put into charcoal compost for the show garden and I really should plant them now and keep them in the heated green house. Swift will grow very quickly and possibly be in flower for the middle of June. I will also plant some later to make sure that they do not come too soon.
The rest of the onions need to be sown now and I will make a second sowing of leeks. If I can keep the Phytomyza gymnostoma off them I might get some decent sized ones this year. I am going to cover them all with a large enviromesh supported by water pipes. It looks a bit unsightly but it is effective.
I really need to get up to the old allotment and plant the broad beans, shallots and garlic. I have some plastic cloches so these will be used to give them a little more protection.
Now that the weather has got a lot warmer, I will plant the rest of the sweet peas. I might even have a go at sowing them in some of the Gro Char charcoal compost. The sweet peas that I planted in December have started to germinate. The cold weather did not do them any harm.
So lots to do and the season has not really begun yet.
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