Eat horse manure 200million flies cannot be wrong.Tony on the Langly Road advertised on Wolverhampton freecycle that he had some well rotted horse manure and believe it or not he has.  I got two loads on Saturday and two loads on Sunday.  I couldn’t fit any more on the new potato area . I started to put it on the next section down.  I will get some more next weekend.  I am just raking it over the surface of the soil.  It has been on Tony’s pile for about a year now so it is well rotted.  I will not be planting in these areas for another three months at least so the manure has even more time to rot down. 

I might fork the manure in or leave it on the top as a mulch.  It depends on what the soil is like when I begin to plant.  I took out the rubarb chard and the late beetroot and carrots.  The carrots were very clean and had no damage.  They were tiny though but good enough for stirfry or salads. 

I have decided to bury the rubarb chard, prunings from the black current bushes and the sorrel in the hole I am making to take the plum tree out.  Didn’t dig the hole much bigger over the weekend because I was getting the manure.  I am not rushing to take the plum out.  I find that if I pace myself digging around the trunk each time I go down the allotment then eventually I get to a depth where I can cut through the roots and then take out the trunk.  I take off most of the branches but do not touch the trunk.  I will use the trunk as a leaver when I have cut the roots, to get the whole thing out. 

I then have to consider how to dispose of the trunk and root.  I would like to bury it but I am not sure whether I have enough room in the comfrey bed or not.  I might try to cut it up into small pieces and bury it there.  I will not be burning it and adding CO2 to the atmosphere.  Now don’t tell me that burying it will also produce CO2 because I know - it just takes a little more time.  And also, some of the carbon will be used by soil organisms to make themselves, so overall a much better solution than burning.

Weeded the winter onions.  They do not seem to be doing as well as I would have liked.  I am not sure but I think that they might be infected by eelworm already. 

Took home two parsnips.  The largest one I have got this year. About 3ft long and about 6 inches wide.  The other one was much smaller than this.  Shows you what sieving the soil does.  I think that I have taken most of the brussel sprouts off now.  I just strip off the largest ones and leave the small ones to bulk up.  I know some people take the whole brussel sprout plant out and strip it.  I hate peeling the little ones though so I leave the plants in and the small ones do get bigger.  The pigeons have taken the tops off my purple sprouting broccoli.  I netted them with an old net so I am hoping that it will give them enough protection.  I don’t mind them having a bit but they have stripped the leaves and buds right back.  I looked at the leeks but did not take any home.  The leek fly has really affected them badly so I may just take them out and put them in the green bin. 

Pruned back some more of the black currents.  They are tending to come over on the planting areas.  Regardless of how hard I cut these back I will have more than enough this year.  We have got about 5 margarine tubs (the big tubs) full of them still in the freezer.

Did quite a bit of ordering over the Christmas holiday.  I have got a large proportion of my seed. 

This is what I have ordered.

• Kestrel and Sante potatoes.  I am going to grow a row of Sarpo Axona as well just to see if it is as resistant to blight as they advertise.   
• French Marigold Bonanza Mixed and French Marigold Durango Flame .  These I will be planting between the onions as an eelworm preventative together with the  mycorrhiza.  I ordered the mycorrhiza as well.
• Beetroot is boltardy.  A good reliable variety which I have grown for many years now. 
• Broccoli Early Purple Sprouting Red Arrow.  I am not fussed which variety I grow of these because they all seem to do well on the allotment.
• Carrots Flyaway.  I grew this for the first time this year and they did very well.  Remarkably for a new variety the taste was great as well. 
• Courgette “All Green Bush”. This will do me because they produce prolifically. 
• Fennel Florence.  This is the bulb fennel.  Good for soups, stews, curries etc. 
• Leek Musselburgh Improved.  Well if they have improved Musselburgh I will give it a go.  I have been growing Musselburgh for years now. 
• Lettuce Iceberg - well I like it.
• Parsnip White Gem.  A new variety for me.  I hope that it does not get canker. 
• Pea Early Onward - did fantastically for me last year for the first time so I will give it another go.
• Pea Kelvedon Wonder.  Not tried this before although it has been around for years.  I will give it a go because Hurst’s Green Shaft has been a disaster for a couple of years now.  It used to be the biggest cropper I have ever had. 
• Runner Bean Aintree - now I hope this will not be a disaster for me because this is another new variety that I have not tried before.  I am a Scarlet Emperor man which you could stretch to an Enorma at a pinch but that has been the extent to my experimenting with runners up to now. 
• Garlic is Albigensian Wight. This is a big soft necked white garlic from the south west of France so I don’t know how it will fare on my allotment.  It is supposed to produce large bulbs in June.  It is the garlic of the Cathars who were 13th century heretics.
• Onion sets are Hercules.
• I still need to get brussel sprouts, cauliflower, corn on the cob, salad leaves, radish etc. etc but I may go down to the local garden centre to get these.