A Winter Holiday?

With the shorter days and darkness from late afternoon I find that I have more time to sit at my computer and believe that it is time to restart this blog.

As in 2009 and 2010, my blog became neglected around midsummer. Through the hectic period that results in the completion of sowing and planting of the allotment for the summer season, writing a blog was no problem, just like keeping an essential diary with the enthusiasm stemming from anticipation of a successful season. For many years until 2010 I had worked for 22 days without a day off during June and the beginning of July looking after the Boat Tent at Henley Royal Regatta. Over those days the allotment was neglected and it was difficult even to find time to pick the fruit and vegetables that would otherwise have spoilt. Following my retirement from that responsibility, I won the prize for best allotment.

This year Barbara retired from her job with HRR and was free in the summer for the first time in 42 years. We both made the most of this freedom. In particular we accepted an invitation to join some friends in France for a while and to lunch with the Secretary of the HRR etc. All very enjoyable, but the allotment was once more neglected at the peak of the growing season; weeds, of course, grow much faster than cultivated crops. With long summer evenings allowing the gardening day to be extended, the blog disappeared in my list of priorities.

So, the blog is resurrected!

Over the next few weeks I will review the 2011 season, covering each group of vegetables in turn, and outline my plans or aspirations for 2012, but in this blog I will summarise the present state of the allotment.

• Crops still in the ground include beetroot, brussel sprouts, carrots, leeks, parsnips, , salad leaves in variety, salsify, spinach, spring onions, and a variety of herbs including a bonus crop of self sown coriander.
• Stored in the shed are butternut squash, garlic, onions, potatoes, shallots.
• Autumn digging is up-to-date, with just the beds that still have crops to be dug. Some areas that were dug early are covered in mypex; those dug recently are not and I wonder whether to bother. Even the weeds will not grow much over winter and laying mypex is a chore. I must work out how long each plot will be left before sowing or planting and at some time cover those that will be left until early summer.
• The greenhouse at home has been emptied, cleaned with Jeyes fluid and is ready for overwintering plants.
• The Kings’ seed order has been placed and received (thank you Margot).
• Recent sowing/plantings include two of broad beans (Aguadulce Claudia) on 31^st October and 25^th November, two plantings of garlic (own saved cloves), onion sets (Radar) for spring onions.

Soon I shall have to order a load of manure. Not something to look forward to in the short term, but essential for the long term.

Maintaining Allotments

On Friday 10^th June 2011 I attended a course with the above title at the Berkshire College of Agriculture, Burchetts Green. This course followed the “Planning an Allotment” course held last Autumn. The tutor, Graham Noble, was once again full of energy, enthusiasm and good advice which all plot holders would find useful.

In his introduction, Graham made reference to the book “The Half-hour Allotment” published by the Royal Horticultural Society and stressed the need for those with limited time to make a list of tasks and to complete those without becoming distracted. I recall this theme from the “Time Manager” course I was sent on in my youth; it is still relevant in retirement. Graham also supported the view that it is folly to attempt to cultivate too large area and do it badly. It is better to cultivate a small area well and cover the remainder with landscaping weed barrier fabric.

The following topics were covered.

Watering

• Watering can, hosepipe and sprinkler that scatter water around are inefficient because much evaporates and a wet surface attracts slugs.
• Watering is best done in the early morning. At midday water evaporates quickly and watering in the evening or overnight leads to fungal diseases.
• Rain water is better than chlorinated tap water.
• A buried weeping or soaker hose is by far the best method, which can be fed either from a tap or a rain water butt. The standard size is 16mm for which cheap push-fit fittings are available.
• Water potatoes only when flowers appear.

Feeding

 

• Fertilizers are usually allocated a 3 number classification of N P K
  • N: nitrogen for green leaves
  • P: Phosphorous for root production
  • : Potassium to encourage ripening of fruit and flowers
• Fertilizers can be either soluble or insoluble.
• Miracle-Gro and Tomorite are well known soluble feeds.
• Growmore pellets can scorch plant leaves and should be broadcast in advance of planting and watered in.
• A dressing of blood fish and bone in Spring is recommended.
• Chicken pellets made from chicken manure with additional organic material are similarly recommended.
• Chicken manure itself is too strong, but is ideal for addition to a compost heap.
• Insoluble fertilizers might block a soaker hose.
• Feed asparagus when cutting stops to encourage growth of asparagus crowns.
• It is claimed that peas and beans do not require fertilizer containing nitrogen because root nodules fix nitrogen from air. Scientific studies suggest, however, that the plants use a lot of energy producing the sugars required to support the organisms fixing the nitrogen, so why not help the plants with a nitrogenous fertilizer.

Weeding

• Very thorough clearance is the best preparation.
• Removing weeds by hand is the certain way of ensuring that weeds do not re-grow.
• Hoeing is only effective if a hot sun kills off de-capitated weeds.
• Hoeing creates a “dust” mulch, conserving moisture a couple of inches below.
• Straw is an effective mulch, which adds humus when subsequently dug in.
• Onions and shallots have narrow leaves which allow weeds to germinate readily and should be kept weed free if possible.
• Roundup contains glyphosphate is the most effective herbicide available to the amateur gardener.

Pest and Disease Control

• Cover outdoor tomatoes to reduce spread of blight. To infect a tomato plant the leaf surface needs to be wet.
• When watering keep the water off the leaves especially late in the day or overnight to reduce spread of mildew and other fungal diseases.

Staking and Tying in

• Essential for some plants and best done early so that stakes do not damage roots and plants do not suffer any wind damage.
• The Max Tapener machine is recommended for tying in sweet peas, tomatoes etc.; expensive (around £40) but very quick.

Pruning

• Remove damaged leaves of all plants
• When thinning carrots, remove thinnings as far as possible from the remaining plants to distract carrot fly.
• Thin shallots in May so that remaining bulbs become larger. The shallots removed can be pickled.
• Fruit trees and bushes can be pruned in the summer. Stone fruits should only be pruned in summer, not at all in winter. Vine side-shoots can be pruned two leaves beyond flower clusters.
• Remove flowers from potatoes.
• Pinch out tomatoes beyond the fourth truss. Tomatoes will seldom ripen worthwhile tomatoes in additional trusses.

Harvesting

• Generally harvest when the crop is ready. Nothing is gained by delay.
• Lift shallots at end of June / early July.
• Dig main crop potatoes before September rains,
• Harvest crops like courgettes and runner beans regularly to ensure continuing production.
• Grow first early potatoes under black polythene to allow removal of individual potatoes without destroying the plant.

Follow-on Crops

To make good use of the ground, plan a follow-on crop for each early season crop:

• Second cropping potatoes (Carlingford) to follow broad beans.
• Late peas (Ambassador or Dorian) to follow early potatoes.
• Late French beans (Ferrari or Pongo) to follow shallots.
• Late carrots (Eskimo), beetroot and salad crops to follow early peas.
• Winter greens to follow broad beans or peas.
• Grow late French beans for freezing; they are more tender than early season beans.
• Consider varieties suitable for overwintering to give especially early crops.
  • Broad beans (Aquadulce Claudia)
  • Onions( Radar)
  • Spring onions (White Lisbon Winter Hardy)
  • Coriander

Other

• Sterilize greenhouse with sulphur candle or Jeyes fluid spray.
• Blanch leeks with a tube of plastic damp proofing.
• Start vegetables like shallots and peas in pots/trays and plant out. Better results are obtained for many vegetables, but not carrots, parsnips and similar with long tap roots.

The Asparagus Season has arrived

I am told that it has been a cold winter, but March seemed quite warm. We even had lunch on the south facing patio a few times. With sunny days and clear nights there have been some light frosts, but with the asparagus beds protected overnight by fleece there has been virtually no frost damage. We had our first asparagus of the season as a starter for lunch on Sunday 27^th March, two weeks earlier than last year when we had our first meal on Sunday 11^th April. Picking about every other day we have picked around 2½ lbs in the first week. Now that we have had a few meals I shall let the shoots grow to a minimum of 6 inches before cutting and so get a heavier crop in coming weeks.

The rain last week was very welcome and beneficial to the newly sown seeds. Germination appears to have been good with radish clearly marking the parsnip row with no sign of flea beetle damage so far. Despite the wet week I was able to finish some of the boring tasks I mentioned in my previous blog, in particular:

• The cabbage plot is prepared. The cabbage family seedlings pricked out into 9 cm pots are close to ready for planting out. The summer cauliflower “Candid Charm” which was hardening off on the patio has suffered some frost damage. This happened last year also, without badly affecting the final result. Interestingly the seedlings not put into pots were planted in an open cold frame and are not far behind.
• The runner bean trench is also ready. After a break of a few years I am once again growing the climbing French bean “Hunter”. I have put seeds in a dozen 9cm pots in the greenhouse with the intention of planting out when ready and protecting the plants with bubble-wrap and fleece as necessary with the hope of getting a very early crop, very similar in taste to runner beans. I have also sown seeds of the dwarf French bean “Safari” which will be given the same protection.
• The remains of the manure heap has been moved to an emptied compost bin clearing the broad bean/pea bed to allow the sowing of broad beans to be completed and a further two rows of peas, including half a row of mange tout “Carouby de Mausanne”.
• The shed has been totally tidied. Nets, supports and other things that will be used in the next few weeks have been moved out into the sweet corn cage so there is room once more in the shed and space to fix a new back wall, for which the timber has been purchased. I probably need to stain the new timber before doing the repair.
• The net roof of the fruit cage, rolled up to avoid snow pulling the net down with its weight is back in place. The side nets will be fitted just before the fruit is ready to be picked to allow bees access to the flowers.
• A compost bin has been emptied ready for the remaining bins to be turned.

Four weeks after returning from our winter holiday the hard work has been done and I am looking forward to enjoying the coming summer. We have potatoes, onions and shallots in store, asparagus, leeks, parsnips, spring onions, lambs lettuce, parsley, coriander and rhubarb in the allotment. We could start cutting Spring cabbage this week and purple broccoli will be sprouting soon. Everything we have sown or planted in the allotment looks well and the greenhouse is full of vegetable and flower seedlings.

As I insert the date I note it is time to start a new self-assessment tax return.

4^th April 2011

Onions and Herbs

It has been yet another perfect day for gardening or just for sitting in the sun.

I spent this morning in the garden at home, cutting the grass, pruning shrubs and generally tidying up. The temperature in the greenhouse reached 80 °F quite early, so the summer cabbage and cauliflower that are growing well in the greenhouse were put out on the patio to be returned to the greenhouse overnight.

We had a most enjoyable lunch on the patio, roll mop herrings with a salad.

When I ordered onion sets from Kings through the Allotment Association I omitted the code so they did not get delivered. When I discovered my error it was impossible to get delivery before we went on holiday and my recent emails are unanswered. So, after lunch I went to Toad Hall where I found very few packets of onion sets. These were supplied by Taylors: the only white onions were the variety “Centurion” and I chose “Karmen” in preference to “Red Baron” for no good reason. On the way to the allotment I diverted to cut some pea sticks. The buds had already started into green growth, but these will better than nothing.

I hand cultivated and raked the onion bed and planted the sets. The packets specified a separation of just 5 inches, but I set them at about 7 inches to give a total of four rows of fifteen feet, shorter than the bed. I decided to use the space for herbs:

• Supplied by Suffolk Herbs, Coriander, Dill, Basil and Garlic Chives
• Two other varieties of basil, one supplied by Thompson & Morgan the other by an Italian company Franchi. The reason for so many varieties is that Barbara finds that the variety I have been growing previously has an aniseed flavour which is absent in the pots of basil obtained from Waitrose.
• Parsley: Kings “Darki”

That seems to bring the allotment garden more or less up to date, at least for early season sowing and planting. There is of course plenty to do, with an immediate list of tasks:

• Cabbage bed to prepare
• Bean trench to dig and poles to erect
• Manure to move
• Shed to clear out, repair and stain
• Compost bins to turn
• Path edges to trim

More Vegetables

The weather has been extremely pleasant this week: perfect for ground preparation and making the first sowings of hardy vegetables. The radish sowed only a few days ago are already germinating marking the row of slow germinating parsnips. In the root vegetable bed I have added short rows of:

• Spinach: Suttons “Tetona”
• Spinach: Suttons “Reddy”
• Kohl Rabi: Kings “Green Delicacy”

Both of these are supposedly quick growing and will provide salad leaves in a few weeks, before going on to maturity. I have also, for the first time sowed:

• Salsify: “Sandwich Island”, which will not reach maturity until October.

All the Mypex sheets that suppressed weeds overwinter have been removed and folded except for the largest. For this I need two pairs of hands, or a calm windless day. As I rake out each bed I give it a light dressing of growmore. I have also sprayed the soft fruit, to control the scale insects that affect some of the redcurrants and a type of green fly that affects both black and red currants causing blistering of leaves.

The carrot fly barrier has now been completely recovered with fleece. A mesh tunnel has been put in place ready for the early summer cabbage and cauliflowers that are growing well in the greenhouse. The sweet corn cage has been erected: this year I shall add a wire mesh top to keep out rats and squirrels or whatever devastated last year’s crop.

Posts have been put in with wires to support the grapes which have been pruned according to the advice given by Alf, a friend from Australia who will be in the UK soon and will no doubt inspect my work.

The allotment has been transformed in just two weeks. There is still a list of outstanding tasks including collecting pea sticks and repairing the shed, but I also need to spend time on more mundane things like making a tax return, completing a census form.

The Greenhouse

I frequently potter in the greenhouse early in the morning whilst I wait hopefully for the sun to warm the allotment. I sow small amounts of seeds to try out different varieties either into modules of various sizes or into a small pot to be pricked out into pots later. This list includes:

• Tomato: Suttons “Fantasio” and “Sungold” and Kings “Stoner’s Exhibition”
• Pepper: Kings “New Ace”
• Chlili: pepper Kings “Habanero”
• Aubergine: Suttons “Black Beauty” and Kings “Long Purple” and “Moneymaker”
• Celeriac: Kings “Giant Prague”
• Cape gooseberry: Suttons
• New Zealand spinach: Kings
• Calabrese: Suttons “Ironman”
• Summer cabbage: Kings “Hispi”
• Cabbage: Suttons “Golden Acre”(Primo)
• Cauliflower: Kings “Candid Charm”
• Sprouting Broccoli: Suttons “Summer Purple”
• Lettuce: various including a few seeds each of “Little Gem”, “Quatro Stagioni”, “Tom Thumb”, “Trocadero”
• Lobelia: Kings “Crystal Palace”
• Tagetes: Kings “Lemon Gem”
• Petunia: Kings “Cascade Mixed”
• Rudbeckia: Kings “Maya”
• Verbena: Kings “Peaches and Cream”

In a small plastic window box I have sown seeds of Rocket and a mix of quick maturing “Salad Leaves” which are claimed to be ready to pick in three weeks. A little optimistic from last year’s experience, but rotating two window boxes gave a steady supply of salad leaves on the patio throughout the summer.

Last year I was able to give New Zealand spinach plants to a few plot holders and have sown additional seeds this year. I must, however to check how many have been requested.

Encouraged by the success of starting peas in pots in the greenhouse I have refilled the nine pots already planted out. As I am late sowing tender vegetables, I have also purchased some mini-plants in modules to be potted up shortly, including:

• Pepper: “Bell Boy”
• Pepper: “Redskin”
• Tomato: “Sungold”

For the patio pots and hanging baskets I have bought seedlings in modules of:

• Geranium: Red
• Verbena: “Sweet Delight”
• Petunia: Surfina “Pink Vein”
• Begonia

For delivery later I have ordered from Suttons:

• Grafted Aubergine: “Scorpio” which did exceptionally well last year. The grafted tomatoes and peppers also did very well, but did not seem to justify the high cost.
• African Marigold: “Vanilla”
• Chitted cucumber seeds “Bella”

Potatoes and Shallots

First task was to spread manure on the potato bed and reduce the size of the manure heap which obstructs the pea/bean bed. This took 24 barrow loads over a morning and most of the afternoon. For light relief I prepared a bed for leek and spring onion seeds, removed the mypex from the shallot bed and tended a bonfire which burned well; most of it had been covered all winter and was dry. The following day I machine cultivated both shallot and potato beds with my motorised cultivator. The main objective was to chop up the manure and incorporate it into the soil. The combination was a little too wet to create a fine tilth, but good enough for potatoes. That day there was no sun, but there was a strong wind which I hoped would be effective at drying the surface.

The following day I cultivated both beds by hand, using the three-tined cultivator.

In the potato bed I planted 2 Kg the first early variety “Accord” and a few of the salad variety “Charlotte” to make up two full rows of the bed. These I covered with enviromesh supported on plastic hoops which will give a little frost protection. I shall leave the remaining potatoes “Charlotte” and main crop “Cara” until April.

In the shallot bed I planted two rows of the variety “Hative de Niort” started in pots in the greenhouse, two rows of sets of the same variety and three rows of the variety “Jermor”. A total of 140 plants all saved from last season’s crop representing a substantial saving, especially as Suttons sells “Hative de Niort” sets at about £1 each. To the right of the shallots are the garlic cloves planted November 2010.

To finish off the day I sowed a short row of spring onions (Kings “White Lisbon”) and two rows of leeks (Kings “Prizetaker” and “Mussellburgh”).

Peas, Broad Beans and root vegetables

The broad beans (Aguadulce Claudia) sown in the cold frame and the peas (Hurst Greenshaft) sown in pots in the greenhouse at the beginning of January have both germinated and developed well. The immediate priority was to plant out the peas. Last year the pigeons destroyed the first sowing of peas and I had to make a netted cage to protect subsequent sowings. Re-erecting this cage and net took a complete afternoon. I really must remember to label my nets when I put them away. Having planted the pea seedlings I sowed more peas to complete the row and added supports saved from last year. Getting more pea sticks is another task to add to the long list. I also sowed some broad beans, one packet of Aquadulce Claudia and one of Masterpiece Green Longpod. Ideally the Aquadulce Claudia should have been sown last autumn, but it will be a useful trial. The rest of the bean patch is occupied by the manure heap; moving this is yet another task to add and one I am not looking forward to. I weeded, fertilized and watered the broad beans in the cold frame before putting the top back on the cold-frame overnight.

I removed the mypex cover from the root vegetable bed. There was just one sickly yellow dandelion proving the effectiveness of mypex as a weed suppressant. I worked the soil surface with a three- tined cultivator to create a reasonable tilth, then re-covered two sides of the carrot fly barrier. I had found an end of season bargain at Wyevale: 10 metre length of 1.8 metre wide fleece with fixing pins. At 30 gsm this is better quality than the very flimsy standard fleece on a roll as sold by Wyevale. When I got home I checked my bill and found that they had not charged the fully reduced bargain price, so I shall to request a refund on my next visit. Re-covering the remaining two sides is yet another task for the list. Erecting these two re-covered sides determined the size of the carrot bed in which I sowed one row each of turnip (King’s “Milan Purple Top”) and carrot (Suttons “Maestro”). I also sowed one full length row of parsnip (Kings “Gladiator”) mixed with radish (Kings “Cherry Belle”), half rows of two varieties of beetroot (Kings “Boltardy” and “Pablo”) and one row of spinach (Mr Fothergill’s “Samish”) which survived the winter in the allotment but shows no sign of growing to picking size yet. I shall have to get some more spinach seeds; in previous years I have had success with both “Scenic” and “Tetona”, so I shall look for these when I next go to a garden centre.

First Blog of 2011

We returned from our extended holiday late on Monday 7^th March.

There was a mountain of mail of little importance, but we soon became aware of more important things that required our attention. The telephone was not working and our home server was showing hard disk errors.

On Tuesday I started running chkdsk; a long process on 1 terabyte drives and called BT to report the fault. The Openreach engineer, who works out of the local exchange and maintains the copper wire, was interesting to talk to. He had an instrument which located a fault in the wiring approximately 41 metres from the house; clearly a bad connection at the telephone pole. Despite this fault the broadband service was working perfectly. The engineer said that digital required only one wire, but analogue two wires. I asked about the new BT Infinity (Fibre to the Cabinet) fast broadband service knowing that one of my neighbours had signed up for it at the end of 2010. He replied that I would not be able to have it. Later my neighbour confirmed that BT Infinity was working well, which left me perplexed as our telephone lines connect to the same pole. I had an online chat with a BT advisor who eventually confirmed that that BT Infinity was not available in my “area”. Asking whether area meant exchange or postcode the answer was my particular telephone line. The engineer returned next day with a hoist to fix the fault. I told him about the online chat and my neighbour’s successful connection. He then explained that there were two sets of connections on the one pole. My neighbour’s telephone is connected to a cabinet about 200 metres away, whilst mine is connected direct to the exchange which is itself only about 250 metres away. This perhaps explains why I have always seemed to get a faster broadband service than others with the same post code. The downside is that, as the engineer and the advisor stated, I will not get FTTC.

On Tuesday I was able to check out the greenhouse. The shallots (Hative de Niort) that I had set out in 3″ pots were looking healthy.

The brassica seeds of cauliflower (Candid Charm) and summer cabbage (Hispi) had also done well and were ready to pot on.

The peas (Hurst Greenshaft) had germinated well and were ready to plant out, so they, together with the shallots, were moved to the patio to be planted out when the beds had been prepared. On Tuesday I made a brief visit to the allotment. My neighbours had clearly been mowing the grass paths and generally looking after things and despite my 2-month absence all seemed in good order. There were leeks in abundance, rhubarb, carrots and parsnips surviving in the ground, spring onions, lambs lettuce, parsley and even coriander under a plastic tunnel.

A few asparagus shoots were just visible, but unwilling to reach into the cold air. Spinach, spring cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli were looking healthy, but obviously waiting for the warmer weather.

In the cold frame, which had been left with the lid off, the broad beans (Aguadulce Claudia) were looking good with no sign of wind damage, but the sweet peas were disappointing.

Having picked a selection of produce I quickly returned to the fireside to decide priorities and dream of warmer weather.

Late Summer Gardening

Late summer is not a time I enjoy in the garden. Whilst it is a time when the choice of produce is almost embarrassing, plants are quickly past their best and look it. The sweet peas attracted flea beetle and were affected by mildew, so reluctantly they were the first to go. Also the wet August has encouraged weeds and hoeing is not effective, so the allotment is looking untidy, which I do not like.

The shallots and onions have been harvested and hang in strings in the shed. The spring onions which were dying off and were to be pickled have resumed growth and a second sowing is almost ready to use. Leeks have now all been planted out.

We have maintained a steady supply of lettuce and salad leaves, either from the allotment or window boxes on the patio. The greenhouse has kept up a steady stream of cucumbers and a variety of tomatoes, aubergines and peppers.

Early potatoes are over. The salad potato (variety Charlotte) has died back and will be dug as soon as the soil dries enough. The main crop (variety Cara), which is growing where I usually have my manure heap is still looking healthily green and free of blight despite several recent warnings from Blight Watch. A trial dig suggests that the crop will be enormous.

Courgettes and runner beans are the mainstay of the vegetables, needing picking every other day. We are reduced to leaving some in a tray on the doorstep for passersby to help themselves. Second sowings of carrots and beetroot are also available along with secondary calabrese shoots and more recently leeks, parsnips and spinach. The standard spinach stills runs to seed so quickly, but New Zealand spinach has run riot across is bed. The tender vegetables like peppers, aubergines and tomatoes provide variety. The tomatoes have remained blight free and have produced an enormous crop. The variety Fantasio is producing enormous tomatoes, mostly weighing over 250g: a lovely beefeater type which makes excellent tomato sauce. The grafted plants from Suttons have been a success, but I shall think carefully before buying so many plants next year: they are expensive.

The sweetcorn was very promising. Regular readers will know that I grow sweetcorn in a steel cage to keep out the deer. One day I found a few cobs nibbled down to resemble a candle. Early next morning I went to check and disturbed a sleek looking brown rat. I picked all the untouched cobs, but lost over half the crop. A neighbour set a trap and over the next few days caught not just rats, but also squirrels and a hen pheasant. I am all for encouraging wildlife, but I would like them to stay out of my sweetcorn until I have picked the best of the crop. I suppose that next year I shall have to put a net over the steel cage.

 

We have had our first butternut squash, not fully flavoured but this one fell off its support. Individually they are enormous. Pumpkins are a good size, without breaking any records. We shall enjoy these over the coming weeks.

For a while the soil was perfect for digging and I have dug by hand the beds that contained onions, shallots, peas and beans. These are now covered with mypex to stop weeds germinating.

I have prepared a small netted cage for over-wintering greens: purple sprouting and spring cabbage only, as hopefully we will get away again this winter.