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!