Winter Digging Time

Happy New Year everyone.

After all the excesses of the Christmas season it's time to get out there on the allotment and start preparing for the Spring, and that means digging.

My plot is a bit of a mixture at the moment, there are perennials such as strawberries and gooseberries which obviously I don't want to dig, winter veg which will need digging but only as the produce is used up and sections that are finished from last year and ready to dig.

Don't worry about the weeds. 

Trying to weed the ground is an impossible task on any reasonably sized plot  and not worth the hassle, the most important thing is that as you dig you turn the soil over. The effect of this is you turn the weeds upside down so their roots are showing which will at least impair their growth and probably kill them.

Any old plants left over from last year, in my case sunflowers, sweet corn, parsley, damaged cabbages, pumpkin, trimmings from leeks and gladioli can all be dug in adding plant mater to the soil and retaining their nutrients.

And you'll be surprised how when you come to plant in the Spring that even thick stems such as sweet corn and sunflowers has broken down. Just make sure that as you dig any old plant material is at least covered in soil. 

Don't try and break up the soil

If you are trying to break up the lumps with your spade as you go you are going to double the work unnecessarily, especially if you are digging your plot for the first time.

In fact this can actually make matters worse, if you break the soil up too finely and we then have heavy rain it will compact the soil, a dry period will then turn this into concrete. Far better to just flip the soil with the spade leaving in a large lump and allow the weather to break it down. 

Don't overdo it.

You've got 3 months before the new planting season arrives, get out onto your plot as often as you can and dig a section, you'll be surprised how quickly you will have dug the whole plot.

So get out there and get some fresh air and exercises,  all for far less than the cost of a gym membership.

Repairing the storm damage

Back in August I planted a row of strawberries through black plastic to help them crop earlier and to suppress the weeds, I held it down with stones, but at the time I thought it might not be good enough to withstand a strong wind.

Went to the allotment this afternoon and I was right, most of the plastic was ripped up and strewn across the plot. What it really needed was for the edges of the plastic to be buried, so I dug a trench all the way round, weighted the plastic down and then refilled the hole. Hopefully that should be good enough.

Luckily none of the strawberry plants have been damaged.

Also dug the remainder of the gladioli bulbs still in the ground.

The garlic I planted in the autumn is starting to peep through, thought the progress would be a bit faster.

Crops today, cabbage, carrots, beetroot, spring onions and leeks. 

Preparing For Next Season.

I've already bought all my seeds for next season and I'm raring to go.

Last year I bought a few packets of seeds from a company called Premier Seeds on Ebay. Their seeds are half the price of the regulars such as Suttons and T&M, you get more seeds in a packet and the germination rate is excellent.

Seeds of note:

Onions: I've always grow seeds from sets, but Glen has grown then from seed in the garden and they've done well. When you compare the price of 99p for 1000 seeds as apposed to £2.99 for a bag of sets I thought it was time I gave seed a try. I read on some allotment websites that onions do do better grow from seed.

Flowers: Bought quite a few flower seeds so I can grow cut flowers for the house on the allotment.

Fennel: Never tried fennel bulbs in cooking, bought a packet of seeds, will give them a try.

Curly Leaf Parsley: After the success of flat leaf parsley this year I thought I'd give this a try.

Sweetcorn: Fed up with mini corns, so I've bought "Rising Sun F1" seeds to grow a full sized corn. I don't think the Highland summers are warm enough or long enough, but it's an early ripening variety so it might work if it's like this year. 

Red Spring Onion:  Variety Lilia, the white spring onions did exceptionally well, so I thought I'd try a white variety as well next year.

Gherkin: I love pickled gherkin. Another experiment.

Red Cabbage:  I grew red cabbage in 2012 and they did brilliantly, not sure why I didn't grow any in 2013.

Broccoli: One of my favorite vegetables, in my experience they tend to all crop at the same time and then run to flower, I'll have a read up to see if there's anything I can do to avoid this.

Apart from these I'm growing things I grew this year. I can't wait to get started, once Christmas is over I'll start digging the allotment and get some manure.

Winter Veg

It might be only 3 weeks to Christmas but there's still lots of fresh produce available on the allotment.

Carrots, beetroot, spring onion, cabbage, leeks and even parsley. 

Most root vegetables will last through the winter, my still plenty of carrots and beetroot on my plot.

The leeks are cropping well this year, they also should stand up to the winter weather, although the outer leaves do tend to go a little much when it's very cold.

Despite the summer vandalism by the caterpillars I still have lots of cabbages, like the leeks the outer leaves might go a little bit off in very cold weather, but they can always be peeled off and the rest used.

The spring onions and the parsley will not fair so well in the snow, but at the moment they're still doing well.

Pumpkin Pie

Back from a two week holiday and the allotment is starting to look a little autumnal.

The Dahlias are still flowering, picked  a bunch today, some carrots, a few squashes, but the big harvest of the day was my pumpkin. It's enormous, I really didn't think it would grow when I picked up a plant in Simpsons in the Spring.

Busy making Pumpkin pie and soup.

I'll write a review of the year for the Dores website in the next couple of days.

Wallflowers For The Spring

As I've said before, it's not just fruit and veg on the allotment, I grow flowers too.

One that works well is wallflowers especially as they are biennials. In June I planted two rows of seeds, White Ivory and Giant Pink.

Here you can see them growing, ready to harvest.

As the summer bedding in the garden is looking pretty tatty now, especially after this weekends wind and rain, I've cleared it away ready for the wallflowers. 

Here's my walled flower bed on the drive, all planted up with the wallflowers, ready for the spring.

As the wallflowers are pink and white I've interspersed them with dark pink tulips that will hopefully grown up through the wallflowers.

Lots to do at the moment

Had to crop my onions this week. A bit earlier than they should be, but my potato plants next to them had got so tall that in the strong wind they'd flopped over the onions and underneath the onions were damp and going off.

Not a bad crop of white onions considering, red onions very disappointing, again! Don't think I'll grow them again..... and I don't think I'll grow my onions next to the potatoes again either.


 
Having a problem with my carrots, last post they were cropping well, but some animal, I think a badger is digging them up. He's eaten all of my early carrot row, apart from the ones I've dug. I've put heavy stones next to the fence where he's getting under and I'm really hoping he doesn't discover my other two rows of carrots.

Other things cropping well at the moment: baby sweetcorn, courgettes, flat leaf parsley, spring onions, new potatoes, french beans,  dahlias and gladioli.  Especially pleased with these green gladioli.

I also have two pumpkins growing, getting quite sizable. Saw the plants it Simpsons, didn't think they'd do much, I could be wrong.






The other two things I'm having problems with is catapillers on my cabbages, they've shredded one row, hardly any leaves on them and weeds which have gone crazy since the rains came.

Need to think about lifting my potato crop in the next couple of weeks. The "Desire" have got blight and the plants are dying off but should still be a good crop. The "Golden Wonder" seem to be resisting.

Yes, that really is a courgette!!