Plot 5

Potatoes arrived from JBA Seed Potatoes, Desiree & Cara, chitting in the shed until the start of April

10 /3/11 (approx) – Sowed into pots; tumbling toms, Passandra cucumbers, Jalepeno peppers, Basil, Feltham First peas, Broad Bean Witkiem Manita, Tomato Roma

16/3/11 – Dug runner bean trench, added some kitchen compost. Met Bev who was rough digging my plot!

19/3/11 – Sowed into pots; Lettuce Saladin, Celery Celebrity

25/3/11 – Sowed a row of parsnips directly into the front bed, sowed 3 quarters of a row of Feltham First peas and put some string up around them for support.

26/3/11 – Tractor day! Oh my word, what a day, used the 2 wheel tractor with rotating plough/rotavator thing to dig over the roughly dug part of the plot. Must have been half of a ten rod plot and I was sweating afterwards, still counting the blisters on my hands too! Because the area was roughly dug it was like a roller coaster ride and an effort just to keep the thing upright but after a pass or two it was a lot easier. It did a great job though, saved many may hours of work and now just need to let things settle and rotavate to a finer tilth and level it out again. Also planted a row of broad beans.

27/3/11 – Added some pea seeds to the row of pea seedlings as i think 4 inches apart was a bit too far, they should stagger the crop slightly too? Finished the row of broad beans by directly sowing, was only four or five! Put a row of Cherry Belle radish next to the parsnip row as a catch crop. The front bed is now full and it is still march – a record for me! Sowed 15 small pots of little gem lettuce.

Time to start again and today (22/02/10) the first seeds were sown, Cayenne peppers which were really successful in the conservatory last year.

27/02/10 – Tomatoes sown into pots on the conservatory window sill. 2 seeds per pot; 6 Tumbling Toms, 5 San Marzano and 4 Gardeners Delight. Going to try hanging baskets for the tumbling toms. Cayenne peppers sown too but on three seeds as we had way too many last year.

13/03/10 – Sowed the cucumbers and marigolds plus 6 pots of basil. Tomatoes have emerged and doing well. Peppers have all germinated and are doing well too. Trying to make space in a corner of the utility/conservatory area to fit it all in!

14/03/10 – 6 pots of Basil sowed, pesto season is coming!

20/03/10 – 15 beetroot sowed into pots, Basil coming through now, everything else doing fine. Bought some red onion sets and garlic bulbs from Poundland – for a pound I’m not expecting great returns but so what – they were a pound!

27/03/10 – Sowed 15 pots of Ruby Ball F1 cabbages, 2 seeds per pot

Unfortunately the 5 cucumber plants in the greenhouse are showing signs of Cucumber Mosaic Virus, which although not good, I’m hoping won’t be the death of them – or the tomatoes in there with them. Having searched around for some info on the subject I came across this useful post, today I’m going to follow the advice and see how the plants get on.

Just in case the above link doesn’t work here is the main info I was interested in…

How to Treat Mosaic Virus
There is no known cure, but all is not necessarily lost. Some advice is to dig up the plant and burn it but that advice is now generally thought to be out of date. Mosaic virus is transmitted from plant to plant in two key ways, by insects and by you, the gardener. Both result in the same symptoms of yellow leaves.

The virus won’t kill your plant, it will reduce it’s vigour and ability to produce crops. So, if you want to keep your plant then follow the steps below.

1. After handling a plant with mosaic virus always wash your hands thoroughly before touching another plant. This will stop the disease being transmitted to your other plants

2. Try and leave tending to plants with any sign of the disease to the last, especially when removing yellow leaves as described below.

3. Remove all yellowing or bronzed leaves and put them away for burning.

4. Make sure that infected plants are well watered and well fed but not overfed.

If you take the steps above, the plants will recover a lot of their vigour, the yellow leaves will slowly reduce and the danger of cross-infection will be minimal. Clear up all debris during the season and especially at the end of the season, no signs of infected leaves should be left on the soil.

Next season, definitely don’t plant tomatoes or cucumbers in the same area again. If you are using a greenhouse, remove all the top soil and replace it with new soil. Increasing the temperature in the greenhouse above 24°C (75°F) has been proven to reduce the effects of mosaic virus.

May so far has been taken up with nurturing seedlings, working on the greenhouse and getting things ready for the bean frame…

• Nearly all the seeds sown have germinated which is a great result. The runners, sweetcorn and french beans are all doing nicely in their paper pots, they are outside under a garden table hardening off. Took the cucumbers up to the greenhouse, they are looking healthy too and have started flowering. What I didn’t realise is that the burpless are outside cucumbers so I’m going to have to play God and make the boy flowers meet the girl flowers
• The greenhouse had an overhaul. Levelled the paving down the centre and put gravel around the borders – looks very posh! Found some old staging behind the container on site and repaired it, the greenhouse now has staging down all sides although I’m taking it out now to make room for the tomatoes and cucumbers.
• The first four poles for the ‘munty’ bean frame have been set in the ground, two back ones are 3ft and the two front ones are 6ft tall, there is a 5 foot gap between them which will give the runner and french beans 9ft to climb. Last year we had 3 6ft wigwams with 5 poles on each (90ft in total). The munty frame will have 21 or 22 9ft strings (189ft total) so we are doubling the amount of growing length and using up the same amount of space. In theory the frame should produce more crop, the beans will be easier to harvest and they will all have sun on them all day. Plus I can grow crops below the frame such as salad crops or a couple of courgettes, plus I’m going to grow butternut squash up the 6 ft front poles and maybe even a sunflower or two as well!

1-4-09
Bought some comfrey root cuttings via ebay and planted all 5 out today. They are in an unused area near the compost bins. They are Bocking 14 so should not take over too much, they will be very handy next year onwards for plant feed, the potato trench and on the compost pile.

4-4-09
Started to dig the area for the beans and sweetcorn, getting ready to build the bean frame mentioned in last months update, more to follow on this.
All 4 sweet pepper seedlings have germinated so my little one is happy. Sowed some Basil Sweet seeds into pots today for the wife, shame I’m the only one who hates pesto! Potted on half of the cucumbers and San Marzano tomatoes, the cucumbers looked great but I think I should have left the tomatoes in the pot for another week or so to build up a better root structure. Will leave the other pot of tomatoes to develop a bit more before potting on.

16-4-09
Seedlings still doing well, left them alone for 5 days while we went away and no ill effects so far. Popped up the plot and dug another 3 feet of the bean bed, starting to hit the clay pan at one spit depth now – this will need some work to sort out the soil. Potted up the rest of the cucumber and San Marzano tomatoes. Tonight is paper pot night, lots to make for runners, sweetcorn, beetroot and French beans. Actually only made 23 pots as I spent a long time investigating if it was ok to use newspaper with coloured ink, seems to be ok as long as you avoid the glossy stuff, most papers use soya based inks. The pots are standing proudly in a seed tray waiting for compost and a bean!

18-4-09
The paper pots were used today! 23 runner beans (Red Knight) were potted up and stood in a tray. Put some cling film around the pots to hold them together as a group and also to stop them drying out too quickly, they are now on the window sill. It was nice to try something new, free and instant with the paper pots so I had another go, this time with climbing french beans (Blue Lake). Potted up 22 but this time I used paper clips to hold the pots together which made the structure more robust. Also I put the cling film around the pots before watering, much easier this way as the pots are still relatively rigid.

19-4-09
Picked up a load of free pots via freecycle, most are very usable so I’m quiet pleased, will prick out the cherry tomatoes and peppers tomorrow into some of the pots.

20-4-09

After 3 weeks and no sign of the comfrey I investigated to see if any of the root cuttings were growing, sadly none of them had done a thing, they were the same as when they went in. This means one of two things: 1) They are dead, 2) They are nearly dead and need a better place to grow. I’ve gone for option 2, dug them up and potted them in compost indoors. If nothing happens then I will give the bloke who sold them to me £3 worth of verbal abuse.
Thinned the peppers and cherry tomatoes into individual pots. Sowed a tray of radishes and a module tray of spring onions, left them in the greenhouse. The radishes are sowed in a uniform way to create a low maintenance consistent crop, this post gave me the inspiration and I have to say I really enjoyed sowing them and look forward to seeing the result!

21-4-09
Finally fitted the auto vent on the greenhouse window. Checked the parsnip row and I see seed leaves coming through, have no idea if they are weeds or parsnips yet. Weeded a bit of the bed next to the parsnips where the carrots will go. Sowed 4 courgettes into 3″ pots, if they all germinate will plant all 4 even if we get a glut all at once we can freeze or give them away, might look into some chutney recipes at some point too.

22-4-09
Sowed a tray of beetroot, 1 seed into each module, 24 modules. Apparently beetroot seeds are actually a cluster of seeds so more than one seedling should appear. You then have the choice to thin the seedlings or leave as a clump, thinning out will allow for a bigger beetroot to form or leaving as a clump will form small (baby) beetroot’s, which is what I’m going to do.  Put the cucumbers and tomatoes outside for the day to begin hardening off a bit.

Tractor Update – The tractor mentioned last month will not be arriving until the 5th of May. This is a bit later than expected so I have updated my plan of attack…
As digging new beds in May with the tractor and then the rotovator is a bit late to prepare the soil properly I’m going to do it this way :- use the tractor to cultivate the large areas of the plot that are uncultivated, this will also level the plot a give me a blank canvas. Rotovate the rough ground to as fine a tilth as can be expected. Instead of preparing the whole bed for planting I will prepare just where the plants will go, small areas where I can put in extra compost/muck/whatever to improve the soil and growing conditions for each plant. As each crop goes in I will focus on getting that area in as good as condition as possible and not waste time working the soil that is not directly used or close to the plants.

Freecycle really is an allomenteers best friend. Having many plans and aspirations for the allotment the next hurdle was to find the raw materials, Freecycle comes up trumps with so many useful things up for grabs. Having been the beneficiary of a few items from Freecycle I thought I would keep a list of them here…

• Paving Slabs, 24 qty, various sizes
• Garden Shredder
• Paving Slabs, 5 qty, 2ft by 2ft
• Garden bench and matching chair, seen better days, bench OK but chair maybe beyond repair
• Waterbut with lid and tap, tap a bit leaky (correction, was loose, now working fine)
• Lightweight concrete blocks, 13 qty
• Garden bench in really good condition, cast iron with wooden slats, very pleased with this!
• Pots – lots of them for seedlings, various sizes
• More pots – 3 dustbin bags full, I think I have enough now
• 3 x White reclining garden chairs – very good condition, picked them up as a bonus when I got the 3 bags of pots.
• Topsoil, 15 bags – around a tonne – phew!
• More topsoil – 4 bags
• Big pots, 6 big pots that will be perfect for tomatoes and cucumbers, a hanging basket and lots of short canes
• Wheelbarrow – old, rusty and perfect! Had a flat tyre which just needed pumping up.

Spring is in the air and I’ve done a lot with the allotment since last year, the main change is a shed to go alongside the greenhouse, very useful for tools and cover when it rains.

March is going like this…

Spending a lot of time landscaping the plot as it is so uneven, have been moving large amounts of soil (clay) from one side to the other, removing a strange mound which ran down the entire length of the plot and using that to fill in gaps elsewhere – this is an ongoing job! The path will run where the mound used to be.

Freecycle – what a great thing! I’ve managed to get a load of paving stones, a garden shredder, a garden bench and a waterbut + lid – all for free! On the look out for a wheelbarrow now, a builders type with an inflatable tyre.

Have dug a bed for this years potatoes, it is next to my one and only good bed which had the spuds last year. Being a clay based soil it was very hard work to get it dug and trying to dig the rest of the plot is a bit daunting to say the least.

Some very good news – our allotments have been granted some money and they are purchasing a two wheeled tractor for us to use. This will allow me to cultivate the rest of my plot in 1 day instead of 2 months – I’m so pleased and getting excited to have a go with it.

Seeds are bought and sowing has commenced on the windowsill of the conservatory.

21.03.09 -:
Tomatoes – San Marzano – sowed into pots
Cucumbers – F1 Burpless – sowed into pots – 100% germination after 6 days
Peppers – Arianne – 4 seeds sowed into pot
Runner Beans – last years from our allotment – sowed 2 beans into 2 pots

22.03.09 -:
Radishes – various – sowed one tray in allotment greenhouse
Parsnips – White King – sowed one row into allotment bed
Brussel Sprouts – F1 Cascade – half a seed tray with 2 seeds per plug (24 seeds) – 100% germination after 4 days
Sweetcorn – F1 Tasty Gold – half a seed tray (12 seeds) – 100% germination after 6 days

26.03.09 -:
Tomato – Red Cherry, 4 seeds into a pot on the windowsill
Chilli – Cayenne, 4 seeds into a pot on the windowsill

Other seeds to sow this year are…
Rocket, Courgette, Swiss Chard, Runner Beans (Red Knight), Carrot (Amsterdam Forcing), Spring Onion (White Lisbon), Parsley, Basil (Ocimum Basilicum), Beetroot, Pronto), Lettuce, Climbing French Bean (Blue Lake)

Potatoes will be kindly donated to us by Bev again this year. Last years were a great success, tasty and plentiful – I’ll find out the variety as I have forgotten!

I’m going to try a new way of supporting the runner beans this year instead of the traditional wigway affair. The support will be constructed from wood and poles/string and resemble a goal mouth when it is finished, here is the forum thread that inspired me: Munty’s one way to grow runner beans. The French Beans will probably be on a wigwam.

30-03-09
Seedlings are doing fine, pretty much 100% germination so far. Found out today that sweetcorn hates being transplanted so the early sweetcorn seedlings growing on the windowsill are probably destined for the compost bin, still, it is nice to see them growing and put it down to this first timers experience. I’ll sow some more into loo rolls or paper pots so when they get planted outside I can just plant the whole thing in one go, Mr Sweetcorn won’t even know he has moved house

Last week I got a nice waterbut from freecycle and went to the allotment today to put it up, It is a nice big waterbut with a good lid. This one is next to the greenhouse and is now sitting on a pair of breeze blocks all ready for the rain. Had to partially fill it to test the tap which happily works fine.

Took a brief trip to plot 5 to see how she faired after some heavy rain and wind and all is well!

The potatoes are looking very healthy and are now starting to flower which is great news. One of the runner plants was pulled by a pigeon but the rest are doing well, a few needed securing onto the canes as they were off in the wrong direction. The carrot and beetroot seedlings are all looking fine and the slug pellets are doing their job

Our youngest son loves sweet peppers and his pepper plant has a good pepper growing on it and a few flowers ready to produce some more, he will be delighted, now we just need to stop him harvesting them before they are ready!

This week has been all about the greenhouse, even though it won’t be in use much this year it will give us some shelter and a chance to get some salad crops growing.

On Saturday morning we took a family visit to the allotment to start moving the green house onto our plot. The greenhouse is 6ftx6ft and was mounted on a wooden frame and spiked into a brick base. Initially I thought of keeping the wooden frame but it proved to difficult to remove from the brick base without breaking it. Getting the greenhouse off the wooden frame was also harder than I imagined, out of 11 screws holding it down only two could be undone with a screwdriver. 40 minutes with a junior hacksaw and the rest of the screws were beheaded – the greenhouse was now ready to move.

As we only need to go two plots up we lifted the greenhouse intact and staggered up the hill, it wasn’t heavy just a little awkward, two adults and 3 kids all going in different directions Placing the greenhouse on two scaffolding boards we were ready for the next stage of levelling an area of ground and making the greenhouse base.

Saturday afternoon was spent levelling the ground for the greenhouse. This was not a trivial task as our plot is incredibly uneven to say the least. The boys began watering the humps and bumps so we could get a spade into the hard ground, I think they ended up wetter than the ground. Using a chillington hoe to get the top cover of weeds off we then dug out the area and dragged soil from the top end to the bottom. Two hours later we were as level as we were going to get and called it a day.

On Tuesday I knocked up a square frame, for the greenhouse to sit on, from some old 4×2 pressure treated timer we had lying around for ages. This was just 4 lengths held together at the ends with two long nails in each end. We placed the frame on the ground and ‘traced’ round it with the blade of the spade so we knew where to did the trench for levelling it, this trench was roughly dug to about 3 inches deep and then filled with 1 inch of sharp sand for the frame to sit on. A few wiggles and whacks with the club hammer and the frame was just about level so we backfilled the trench with some soil to firm it in place. Next we picked up the greenhouse and lowered it on top of the wooden frame – amazing the frame was about 1mm to long at one corner but with a little persuasion the greenhouse slipped snugly onto the frame – hooray!

Wednesday evening was back to allotment to screw the greenhouse down and start glazing it. The boys enjoyed ‘washing’ the glass with the hose turned on to the jet setting, under very strict supervision from me.

Here is the greenhouse just before we screwed it to the base and gave it a quick clean before glazing…

It did for our three rows of potatoes, they were treated to their first (and probably only) earthing up today. I’ve no idea if it will help the crop but I had read about it so many times that I thought I must do it at least once, now I can relax in the knowledge it is done.

The great thing about earthing up the potatoes was that now my rows have that ‘you look like you know what you are doing’ look about them, please don’t let on it was pure guesswork! Also it exposed more of the couch and bindweed roots which were quickly despatched to a plastic bag of root death. There is something incredibly satisfying about pulling a weed shoot slowly and extracting the mother root with it.

Fingers crossed the spud gods look down on my work and see that it was good.