A hard slog on the allotment

   Well, my back and knees ache but then I have been digging on my allotment this past week! It's never easy and each year it seems to get just that little bit harder as I get just that little bit older. Thankfully I had my husband helping out. He isn't really a fan of gardening but he does like anything mechanical so naturally he helped out by using the rotavator while I worked planting the last of my broad beans on the plot.

   So, what's better? Digging or rotavating? I think it's down to what works best for the individual and their needs. Here's a list of pros and cons:

Digging:

• You can choose to do a double dig or single dig or just aim to simply turn the soil.
• Weeds can be removed in whole pieces (the areas where I dig more thoroughly tend to have less weeds each year as I don't leave any roots in the soil).
• You can incorporate manure or compost into your soil when digging.
• But you can ache after the hard work.
• It can take up a lot of time too.

Rotavating:

• It's quick and therefore covers a lot of ground in very little time.
• It breaks the soil up quite well.
• But it's not a cheap machine to buy and you might need to hire one (unless you know someone that has a rotavator).
• Annoyingly, weeds can get broken up and growing again, and I've had bindweed being dispersed further by the rotavator just spreading the weed's roots everywhere.

It really didn't take too long (apart from running out of petrol at one point).

   The broad beans had to go out. I thought that I could wait a little longer with the last of them but they were fast outgrowing their pots as the weather's become warmer and I was also running out of space and as we're moving in to April very soon, I needed that space for more sowings.

   The one thing that I find a hurdle on the allotment is the windy weather. Being so exposed I'm always on the lookout for plants that can take being battered by the elements. The first planting of broad beans was looking worn out already so I bought some small bamboo sticks and twine to create supports. I'm pleased to say that they are working! I'm not the neatest of gardeners so my lines of beans are so far wonky. But what are looks on an allotment where practicality overcomes aesthetics? I'm just happy that I have many beans growing but the danger of losing them is not yet over. There are signs of deer nearby and even though it'a warm right now, there could be frost. Did I ever say that gardening was easy? Strangely, despite the potential set backs, I still really enjoy gardening.

   So, what did I finish with this week? The broad beans are now all in at the allotment. Carefully supported by just tying twine to bamboo sticks either side of the plants seems to be doing the trick. The original frost cover for the peas was in tatters so I had to use some more bamboo sticks and twine to create a lower support and then fixed another cover on top for now (while the peas are still quite small). The lower frost cover shouldn't be damaged by the wind. I also managed to get some onion sets in although I'm behind with planting garlic, which I'm really cross with myself for.

 

 All ready for planting. The bamboo sticks were £1 for 50 from Poundland,

 The new cover for the peas and my broad beans with some support.

   A closer look at the support. In the background you can see the old pea cover, not looking its best.

   Back at home I've been working a bit in the polytunnel. As there's protection from any potential frost, I've planted out my early tomatoes into the second raised bed, where I had buried some fresh duck manure back in November. Just to be on the safe side, I've covered the smaller tomatoes with plastic bottles, which should keep them safe from any pests as well. I first used plastic bottles when I started growing sweetcorn as they were a good way of protecting the young plants very much like any other cloche would. So, much to my husband's dislike I've been stashing away plastic bottles among other 'useful' items for my garden work. 

   As for any other seeds, I've sown more beans (not broad this time). The dwarf French bean amethyst and a dwarf borlotti bean, saluggia. I tried growing borlottis last year but failed after a frost got to them and I didn't have enough time to sow any more. French beans I love to grow as the kids really enjoy eating them and they never seem to get bored of them. 

 One of my tomatoes, red cherry, without a bottle cloche. Just in the corner is one plant with a cover. These plants are about 15cm tall already.

   So on with more planning. I aim to pot on some flowers that I'm growing and sow far more vegetable seeds. I need to clean out the greenhouse and poly properly and continue digging the plot, should my back allow me to!

   Keep up the hard work as the weather is improving and the nights are drawing out more now. It's just going to get far better from now on! Till next time. 

And finally to the allotment...

   Well, it's been a while but now I can finally say that I have been working hard on the allotment. The weather has been very good until just now (it was far too cold and windy today unfortunately) and I needed that window of opportunity to get some plants out on the plot.

   I decided that as the oldest plants in my polytunnel, the broad beans and some of the peas could do with moving to the great outdoors. The polytunnel was in need of giving up some plants for more space and the plants were in need of more space to grow. A perfect excuse.

   In order to prepare the plot I dug (a simple single dig this time round) the area allotted for beans and peas. Over the winter months I've been preparing by sowing seeds but also by drawing up plans for what I would grow where on the plot, allowing for crop rotation to prevent disease. So on with the digging, using a plank to stand on to avoid compacting the soil. You don't need to use a plank but I find it quite useful, especially when sowing seeds or planting seedlings after you've been digging.

   After digging and removing as much weeds as possible, including vast amounts of bind weed roots, I raked the soil to get the surface as fine as possible. It's not easily done as I must admit I didn't look after my allotment as much as I wanted to last year so the condition of the soil wasn't great to start with. A word of warning - don't be disheartened to see that your efforts may not leave you with amazing dark, rich, crumbly soil that you see on tv gardens. It can take years to work soil to a good condition and you need to understand your soil somewhat to help improve it. I'm promising myself that late this year after the growing season I will add soil improvers as I fear I might not be able to grow as much as I could do next year without doing so.

   Now, I'm not the neatest of gardeners but I am making an effort to plant things in straight lines. This time I've used string and short (three feet long) bamboo canes to mark out straight lines, which will also be used to help support the young plants as the plot is very exposed to the elements - especially wind.

 That's as straight as I'll get it, with some string and bamboo canes.

Broad bean Aquadulce claudia, looking very good and strong enough to be outdoors now. 

 Don't know how but one bean got away from the straight line!

Peas, Kelvedon wonder, patiently waiting their turn to be planted into the soil. 

 In order to prevent the peas from getting frost damage, I made a cover with fleece. Already it's been affected by the strong winds on the plot but is holding firm for now.

   The beans should be able to cope with some frost but the peas probably won't and I'm certainly not going to take the risk of potentially losing all that work and time. I built a cover of fleece, wrapping it around the canes and tying it into position, anchoring it with earth filled pots before pinning the fleece down into the ground to stop it from being blown away. The fleece is light and will let the light through, but it won't let frost through. The only thing now that could cause me problems is the wind. You can see in the photo that the wind is already affecting the fleece. Keeping a look out and doing any makeshift repairs will have to do for now, until the danger of frost has left us.

   I didn't have anything else to put out on the allotment for now as most plants will be tender and could die in frost so I will carry on sowing seeds in the polytunnel. The radish seeds I had sown two weeks ago have started coming up but there's still nothing from the carrot and parsnip seeds. I'll be looking at the seeds I have which I can sow in March and carry on from there but already I feel like time is not on my side! 

   Well, I feel like I've done my bit for this week and I'll leave you with some photos of other plants coming to life in spring. Until next time!

 One of my gooseberry bushes waking up for the year. You can see lots of spider webs on this one.

 A ladybird seeks shelter in my sage bush.

Daffodils in the afternoon sun. Always puts a smile on my face!

Marching on

   I'm short of time this week due to work and another volunteer commitment (not gardening though), which has really frustrated me. I decided that today would be my gardening day despite having to fit in family chores as well.

   I've been working mostly in the polytunnel today, sowing yet more seeds and potting on seedlings that were in need of stretching their roots.

   Firstly, I checked the broad beans and I'm still losing more Bunyards variety to root rot, which is annoying to say the least. Even though the plants are getting bigger two more have succumbed to this fungal infection. They were promptly thrown away to try and prevent more from getting this. I also kept a good look out for pests and found a small handful of aphids (greenfly) on one plant and just like the diseased plants, the aphids were quickly removed!

Can you spot the aphid on the broad bean? Take a close look.

   I also potted on some of my bigger tomato seedlings. These were Red Cherry, Money Maker and Gartenperle. I moved them on from their cells to half litre pots, which should be more than enough room for a few weeks before I transfer these to the raised bed in the poly.

   Remember that hotbed idea...
   ...well, I gave up the old Victorian method and today I've been working on adding more poultry manure by burying it a foot below the top soil. It'll be here that the tomato plants will go, along with a courgette plant and a couple of aubergine plants. You may be wondering why I haven't just transplanted the larger seedling straight into the raised bed but there's a few reasons why I haven't:

1. I want the manure to rot a bit more before putting the plants in.
2. Being a poultry keeper I do, unfortunately, suffer with having rats in the garden occasionally and they have taken to damaging a lot of plants in the past. So I'm keeping the young seedlings out of harm's way until they get much bigger.
3. The poly alone doesn't offer much frost protection should temperatures drop severely, so I have the small pots under some cover within the poly before hardening off first.

   The seeds focused on today were radishes, carrots, parsley root, parsnips and sweetcorn. All but the sweetcorn were sown directly into the second raised bed. The soil in this raised bed is nice and crumbly and not too stony, which should be perfect for root veg. The other thing I want to advise is that for this bed I didn't add any fresh compost or fertilizer prior to sowing. Too much fertilizer will cause carrots to fork, which can be awkward when preparing in the kitchen. The soil I have was already rich in nutrients as I treated it a while ago. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't add nutrients for your growing carrots - just don't use too much.

 The soil in this raised bed was raked over carefully to produce a nice even surface.

 Even an indoor raised bed will have plenty of like in it.

 After raking I created small trenches for the rows of seeds to be sown into.

 These were the varieties sown in that bed, all with prepared labels.

Sowing small seed thinly isn't the easiest of tasks so once these will (hopefully) start growing, they may need to be thinned out.

   The sweetcorn variety I had sown today was Incredible, which is an F1 variety. So what are F1's? The F stands for Filial and is basically the first offspring of cross breeding or creating a hybrid. You'll find that F1's tend to be more expensive than other seeds and this is usually because that selective breeding will give you seeds that produce more and might be better disease resistant.

   Next week I'm going to try and work on the allotment some more, especially as subs are due! The plot will need weeding and digging over and I will start planning what goes where by drawing out some plans.

Until now, keep gardening!    

After Doris

   A couple of days ago my son came home from school and told me that his friend had mentioned to him that our shed had been blown over on our allotment during storm Doris. His friend lives in a flat overlooking the plots and I was grateful for the notification but a little nervous as I wasn't sure what was awaiting us. Being the sort of person who usually thinks the worst, I imagined the shed in pieces and all my gardening belongings strewn over everybody else's plots!

   All wasn't that bad. Here's what it really looked like:

Don't worry - the shed fully recovered from its little mishap!

  

    I was relieved when my husband and I lifted the shed back up carefully and found that apart from a few (probably) surprised spiders, the shed and all its goods were fine. 

   So, now to being totally honest and admitting that my two plots look absolutely awful at the moment. I'm not the only one but with two plots (one being 5 pole, the other 10 pole) it's not going to be easy work. Needless to say, the soil was quite easy to dig even after all the rain and I had the whole family chipping in to get it all started. I think this will be an interesting year on my plot, with a lot of developing ideas and new crops. 

 Even though it wasn't easy, my son enjoyed a bit of digging. In front of him is box hedging that I hope will grow well and create a nice area for herbs and edible flowers.

My daughter getting stuck in with removing last year's sweetcorn plants. She's specifically requested lots more sweetcorn for this year.

   Meanwhile, in the polytunnel...

   Things have been growing well, despite losing some broad beans earlier to root rot. I now have more broad beans germinating, adding to the season's length. This time I sowed a different variety: Masterpiece green longpod. I have grown these before and they have been reliable in the past so fingers crossed.

   Seedlings are popping up all over the place in the polytunnel, which is very pleasing to the eye. Peas and broad beans are growing on, needing repotting if I don't plant them out on the allotment very soon. I could do this but I would need to protect them from frost as they won't be hardy. Frosts can still occur this time of year right up to May. I made the mistake of planting out runner beans in late April last year without protection and lost the lot. What was hard to comprehend was that there wasn't a frost forecast that particular evening, nor did many other allotment holders suffer this bout of cold. Only two plots were affected and with mine losing the runner beans I had no spare plants. I shan't be making that mistake again.

 The heated propagators have been switched off as things are warming up naturally now, but I still keep the covers on. These are a selection of tomatoes and aubergines.

 Masterpiece green longpod doing its thing.

The Aquadulce broad beans are fast outgrowing their pots. Here you can see the roots poking through the bottom of the pot. If I don't get a plot ready then I will have to repot these to keep them growing on until I have a space prepared for them on the allotment.

   So here's a list of what I'm doing now to prepare for the growing year:

1. Prepping the allotment: by digging and adding nutrients to the soil (for me this is using well rotted chicken manure from my own feathered kin at home).
2. Switching off heated propagators. Temperatures are rising now and so I will let nature play its part instead as we look ahead to March.
3. Potting on seedlings. When these start getting too big for their seed tray cells they need to be moved on. 

   There's not much more I need or want to do as this will be enough work for now. During March I will start sowing more seeds and so will my children as the allotment chairwoman has asked if they could grow some flowers to decorate the allotment shop with over summer.

   So, prepare yourself for any mishaps like storm Doris causing some damage, also start looking at what you want to grow that will need to be sown in March. There's lots of different things that can be started off in March so take your time to choose what you would enjoy growing and eating. Finally, be ready for pests. Having spoken to a fellow allotment holder today, he told me that he had some early broad beans which he was hardening off, only to be eaten by a grey squirrel one afternoon. It's a constant battle but I enjoy it!

   Keep gardening! 

A romantic walk

   Seeing as it's Valentine's Day I spent much of today with the family on a "romantic walk" at our local nature reserve. Despite it being half term it was a very peaceful walk and there were lots of opportunities to spot some wonderful natural sights.

   It was bright and sunny this morning and dry, so the conditions were ideal. I armed myself with my camera, hoping to photograph some snowdrops and various wildlife. That's exactly what I managed to do. The children also took photos on our mobile phones, which was very encouraging. I can't tell you how pleased I am that they are interested in wildlife.

   The snowdrops were beautiful. The ones in my garden are yet to flower so to see these on the reserve in bloom were lovely.

Just a small sample of the hundreds of snowdrops adorning the reserve floor. 

   Most snowdrops were found in remote places, away from the most used public paths so we had to do a bit of walking to find them but when we did there were plenty to see. 

   There were also many birds, which I also caught on camera. Unfortunately, some of the smaller birds were hard to see but I could hear them! When I did find an opportunity to take a picture most little birds were quick to fly away, but here's what I did take:

 The robin was certainly not shy of the camera and followed us for a bit. 

 The lovely rosy colour of the male chaffinch. This bird was difficult to photograph as he would not keep still.

 This chaffinch took to the air as I snapped away and I'm happy to have caught a picture of it in flight.

 Now more commonly seen at the reserve, an egret. This bird was keen to keep its distance from me, so I couldn't get any closer. A duck photobombed this picture too!

 There's plenty of moorhens here on the reserve. 

Not an escaped pet but a ring-necked parakeet, now naturalised in the UK. I used to see plenty of these in London but for the past four years they've moved in to this area. Although a noisy bird, there's not many here at the moment to cause too much disturbance. This one stayed still for a long time, while its partner was on the move in the same tree. I only spotted about four in total.

   Apart from the birds, there was more to see. The reserve is full of life and I hope that over the years it is loved by everyone as it is now. However, sometimes when I walk there I see rubbish such as food wrappers and drinks cans and bottles. It spoils it for those of us that enjoy the outdoors. Yes, there are picnic tables but there are also bins. Rather disturbingly, I also spotted a spillage in the springs. A nearby discarded milk drink bottle may have given away what it was but it's still not very nice to see. Please, please, please tidy up after yourselves! It's not just people that get affected by rubbish. To finish off today here are some more photos of the reserve that I took:

 A nest revealed by the winter.

 Reeds and a clear blue sky.

 A lovely Hart's Tongue Fern. Here you can clearly see the sori, where spores are made (the straight, brown lines on the undersides of the leaves).

 My husband spotted these snails.

The simple beauty of moss on a fallen tree. 

 Fungi on a tree.

 The offending spillage. Not a nice sight but I wanted to highlight this. It doesn't take much to spoil nature, so please throw your rubbish away properly.

The rushing river. I couldn't see the local kingfisher today. Maybe another time.

   So, why would I feature this on a grow your own blog? Well, there are bore holes on this reserve, where spring water comes from. Watercress was a staple food once and this was harvested here owing to the clean spring water (a needed condition for watercress). Not in use for this any longer but a good reminder of how humans used nature for growing food.  

   I hope that you have all had a lovely Valentine's Day so far.

Potting on (some more)

   Well, the weather's become a lot colder this week, following the easterly winds blowing their cold air over my way. Mind you, there'll still be plenty of frost coming this way until about May so I'm not in the least bit surprised really.

   The poly tunnel is starting to fill out with seeds trays, as is the green house, but even after my last job of potting on, more seedlings are in need of extra space. This week it's the turn of the peas and artichokes.

   The peas I had sown early (November last year) were a variety called Kelvedon Wonder and by now although only about 2-3ins tall, they do need to be potted on from their small seed tray cells. I've carefully removed them to avoid as much root disturbance as possible (as peas seem to not like their roots disturbed much) and transplanted them to 0.5ltr pots. This gives them more room for now and extra nutrients from the additional compost I've had to use. I had originally sown about 30 seeds and roughly 70% have germinated. All in all, not bad. In my experience, you should never expect 100% success and beyond the germination stage, you could see more losses, as I did with my broad beans, which I will come to shortly.

Kelvedon Wonder peas: in their new home for now. I won't be repotting them again. Instead they will go out on the allotment in a few weeks.

   The globe artichokes that I sowed during January needed potting on. Now, here's a tip to remember: I had placed them in heated propagators (see here about when I did this) and so they sprouted up quite quickly but with them came a pest! Luckily I took a close look and spotted greenfly on one of my seedlings! I promptly removed them as such an attack on my young plants could mean no success whatsoever. Always, always, always check your seedlings! You never know what lurks among them.

 A little difficult to see but if you look closely at the central leaves at the top, you can see a cluster of aphids. A much larger aphid is seen lower down and was the one I spotted first.

   When it came to checking my broad beans I was disappointed. The Bunyards Exhibition I thought would be good to grow had all but one succumbed to what looked like root rot. When I went to check them I noticed that they were all starting to look a little droopy and then I noticed that the base of the stems were black in colour. Not good. Here's what they looked like:

 This was the view while they were in their pots. You can see the blackened stem where I'm pointing to.

Taking one out of its pot gave me a clearer view of the fungal damage caused. These plants won't recover and were thrown away.

   Years back I would have probably cried over the loss (believe me this is true) as I would have felt extremely disappointed and would have thought that the whole thing was just a waste of time. This is why when I write about this I can't help but add that gardeners should always plan ahead, including for disasters, which in my mind this one was. Unlike the years where I would have cried because I wouldn't have had any other seeds, I've made sure that I will have more. The other variety that I had sown, Aquadulce Claudia, are currently growing well so I'm pleased with that. I will add further sowings as well to increase potential yield and lengthen my harvest time (at least, that's the idea).

   So my advice for this week would be to keep an eye on anything that you are growing as diseases and pests are awakening. Make sure that seedlings are protected from the cold by cold frames or fleece and don't over water. Throw away any plants that have symptoms of fungal disease as it will spread to others. 

  Until next time.  

Seedy Sunday

   When my husband had informed me that his local reserve volunteering day had been cancelled due to the potential bad weather, I was quite pleased as it meant that the whole family could go out on a day trip instead.

   I had previously read about Seedy Sunday in a magazine and having thought that this was a lovely idea, I wanted to visit. It was also an opportunity to see what Brighton is like these days and I must admit that the day was nice with a visit to the pier and some nice lunch.

   Now, back to the seed swap. It was being held a college so it was easy to find. The staff and volunteers there were all very pleasant. It did cost us to enter the seed swap, which was £3 per adult (children went free). What happens at this event is that you can swap seeds with others to expand your collection of varieties, using up any surplus seed that you may have, or you can simply buy seeds there. There's lots of stalls and there are talks throughout the day. Unfortunately, as my two children are quite young still, they didn't want to attend a talk so I missed out on that part of the day. We did take a good look around at the various stalls and I bought a couple of seed packets. These were white tomatoes (supposedly very tasty so I'm hoping that these will do well for me) and skirret, which has had some publicity recently as an historical vegetable that was a staple for people in Tudor times.

   The event was busy with a lot of people showing interest in preserving heritage seeds and charities and communities looking for volunteers. It would be great if something like this could be held where I live as there's much interest in gardening. We shall see. Seedy Sunday is something that is held once a year and has done so since 2001. Maybe now it's time that such events were held in other towns and cities?

 The Seed Swap event this year.

  It's not too difficult to collect seeds no matter how big or small.

   As for my own seeds and seedlings, I shall be returning to those for next time. Till now, keep gardening.

Gardening for your health

   I'm guessing that I got my love of gardening from my mother. She would grow fruit and veg, harvesting everything possible and then storing the excess over winter with foods such as pickles and passata. One of our neighbours would pop round for some fresh mint, dropping off home grown cooking apples in return. Another would donate some home made elderflower wine for home grown offerings. As a child I would run around the framework of runner beans, observing ladybirds eating the blackfly, while at school my mother would drop off excess seedlings to other mums and school teachers who would be interested as she came to pick me up in the afternoons.

   However, now, that lovely garden that was once so rich with plants is overrun with weeds and overgrown trees. It's as though no one has looked after it in years. Wait...maybe because no one really has. Since my father died my mother has suffered bouts of depression and where she had grown so much of her own food there now stands weeds. Looking back at it all, society has somewhat changed. Most of those lovely neighbours (I knew the whole street when I was a child) have passed away or moved and new neighbours have been reluctant to integrate with everyone or have unfortunately been absolutely horrible. It's all very sad but my mother doesn't want to move and as I visit her once a week I thought it would be a lovely idea to work on her garden again so that she would enjoy it once more and reduce her shopping bills by growing her own.

   It's not going to be an easy project as the garden has become so very overgrown but I see this as a positive challenge! Over time I want to introduce easy to maintain plants and shrubs in the first half of the back garden, with fruit and veg in the second half. There is a shed in need of restoration and a greenhouse that is alive with the biggest spiders I've seen for a while!

   This will take a long time but I made a start late last year and I think that it would be a nice thing to share, to show people how gardening can be good for your well being and that it can be rewarding to work at something like this. For now I leave you with some images of how the garden looks at the moment:

 A very unloved lawn but one that can be fixed easily.

 Rubbish and overgrowth cover the entrance to the front garden.

 A leftover broken gnome sits sadly close to where there was once a big, beautiful hardy fuchsia. 

 There is a path buried under here which leads to the greenhouse, behind which grew raspberries.

 A close up of the greenhouse.

The shed that my father built and in front was the veg patch (imagine runner beans, carrots, onions, tomatoes and herbs)