I spent a little time up on the allotment today.  A biting wind was blowing and the water in the butts was frozen over.  I decided to start digging over the ground where the beans were.  I realised after a couple of fork fulls that I was digging in frost.  The ground was frozen for about 2cm below the surface.  There is no reason that I can think of not to dig in frost except that the worms will not like it and there is the rub.  Worms are my nanobots.  they turn over the soil and mix in organic matter that I have dug into the soil. 

I don’t really want to upset them. I will be able to dig later or even just clear the tops off and hoe, hand cultivate and rake  rather than dig it.  The good thing about the cold weather is that you do not have to rush to do things. 

I have been investigating natural remedies and I think that I am going to try a few new ones this year. 

   Now this is just one of many different nematode treatments.  I don’t know whether I will go with this one or another but if I record it here then at least I will remember to order some.

  From the allotment forum and from mycorrhizal sites, using friendly fungi will boost crops and increase yeilds.  I don’t know if it is true but I will give it a go.  The plants on the allotment are suffering from nematode infection and anything that will give them a boost, I will try. 

I am also going to go for several of the suggestions on

http://www.yardener.com/SolutionsForPestNematodes.html

to see if I can ameliorate the eel worm problem on my allotment.  I am definitely going to use marigolds along each of the rows to see what effect they have.  Rick has convinced me that there could be a problem using many chemicals.  So I am going to try and be as chemical free as possible.

http://www.allotments-uk.com/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=1&TOPIC_ID=4928訪

 We shall see. 

 �

Just put a couple of trailer loads of horse muck on my allotment. I got this through Wolverhampton freecycle, an excellent use of the internet.  There is about 10 tons there and I will use as much as I can get.  It is about 5-6 months old. There is a lot of sawdust in it. Lots of people on the allotments do not use sawdust horsemuck saying that it takes nitrogen out of the soil as it rots down. I say what goes in will eventually come out again using the conservation of matter principle. Things do not disappear from the world - that only happens in magic. So eventually the nitrogen that bacteria and fungi take up to rot down the sawdust will return to the soil when they die. I am not going to use these parts of my allotment until I plant potatoes next year, so rather than allowing the nitrogen and other nutrients leach from the soil, I will allow them to be taken up by microorganisms in the soil to be released next year at the appropriate time.Well… Thats the theory what do you think?I put the horse manure around the leeks, mainly because I want to dig it in for the potatoes and the potatoes are going here next year.  I piled it up quite high - about 12 inches.  I doubt if this will harm the leeks at all but I will keep an eye on them.  Harvested some of the leeks yesterday and three of the parsnips.  Leeks are riddled with leek fly Napomyza gymnostoma but there is enough for a meal out of them.  The first two parsnips were very small and I was a little despondent about them.  However the third one was quite a good one.  Took the leeks home but forgot to take the parsnips.  I am using the leeks for dinner today.  The parsnips will survive on the allotment in the sleet so I will get them tomorrow.  I took down the bean poles.  Either some idiot pushed them over or the wind was very strong but I found them keeled over on the allotment.  It didn’t take me long to dismantle them.  The frosts that we have been having had turned the leaves black.  I have left the tops on the allotment and I will dig them in when I start on this area next week.  I still want to move the strawberries out of the way of the potatoes because the strawberries are always over topped by the potatoes and this means that they do not fruit very well. 

I haven’t forgotten this blog it is just that I have not done much except harvest in October and beginning of November. 

The winter onions are coming quite well and there are big pods on my peas.  I doubt if I will get any though.  I will need to take the beans down soon but there are still some flowers on them.  

Still no frosts.