I took all the potatoes to the allotment and planted them first.  5 rows of Kestrel, 1 of Sante and one row of Sapo.  That will be more than enough for my family.  I dug a trench this time, mainly because I had spread well rotted manure over the potato beds. Refilling the trenches helped to mix in the manure.  I put a watering can full of comfrey in the rows as well.  Planted the potatoes and for good measure I put some mychorrhizal fungi in with each tuber as well.  I doubt that it will have the least effect but I will try anything once. 

 Unfortunately the broccoli and the winter cauliflowers still have not finished and they will not before the end of April.  So the potatoes had to be planted under and through the brassicas.  I spent some time tidying up the broccoli and winter cauliflowers.  There were some dead leaves on the ground and on the plants.  I put these in a big plastic compost bag to take home and put into the green bin. 

All diseased material on the allotment will go into the green bin now.  I was going to lime the brassica bed but I will leave that for a while. 

I lime for three or four reasons. 

1) The allotment has had club root in the past and the fungi does not like a high pH.  Liming simply prevents its return. 

2) I like to sweeten the soil once every three years.  I do not like the pH to get too low.  It is about 6.5 at the moment and this is good for most vegetables.

3) The allotment is on a 200″ slab of clay which means the soil is clay.  It is the same clay as Baggeridge Bricks are made out of.  Liming helps to form a good soil structure because it flocculates clay making large crumbs and the soil becomes more open to allow air and water to percolate through.

 4) Lime is a fertilizer and adds a couple of useful micronutrients to the soil. So I will be liming the area where the brassicas are going to go. 

I put in a line of radish in this area too.  Radish is a brassica and is susceptible to club root as well so I thought it was politic to do that.   I put in two rows of parsnips.  White Gem.  I doubt if I will need two rows of parsnips but they always come in. Then I went down to the new allotment and put in 6 large posts for the sweet peas and the runner beans.  I am not sure whether this will be enough because of the winds we get being exposed to the north but we shall see. 

There was a  little white fly on the cauliflowers and a tiny amount on the broccoli.  So I sprayed with aspirin again.  Dosed the garlic and winter onions again.  The winter onions are looking decidedly unhappy. Lots of the leaves are broken and bent down.  I think worms are pulling them into the soil.   I took out all of the no hopers and put them in the green bin bag. Then it was time to go home cus I was tired.

I will lime the brassica bed so I will need to get some lime from the garden centre.  One bag should be enough for this area.  I will also get four possibly six tree posts as well for the sweet peas and the runner beans. 

The sweet peas are best if you take out the lead bud and allow two side buds to develop.  They are a little too small for that at the moment but if the weather stays warm then they will be big enough this week. 

Mowed the front and back lawn.  I will be taking the mowings down to the allotment and putting them into the sweet pea trenches. 

The lawns will have to be fed.  I don’t like doing this because the fertiliser has weed and moss killer in it.  Makes a good grassy lawn but I wonder if it is worth it. 

I will take the potatoes to the allotment tomorrow.  I will plant them starting with the Kestrel then Sante and finally the other one which I can’t remember the name of.  I will probably put a row of parsnips in as well.�

                   One of the main reasons that I decided to take on this new half allotment was to make me do a little exercise and loose about 6kg.  Well today I did well.  I have dug about 25′ of the allotment right the way across.   Not sure when I started in earnest but it must have take me about three hours of sustained digging.  I bought myself a new stainless steel spade several weeks ago and this was ideal for digging with.  It does have a long blade thought and I have to shift about twice as much soil as my other spade would shift.  It started raining as soon as I got to the allotment but it was only drizzly so I decided to carry on. 

Several quite heavy showers later and I had finished down to the slabbed path.  I had a bet with myself because I didn’t think that I would do it.  It was a little miserable. I think that the thrush is nesting quite close because it was down on the allotment looking for slugs and snails.  Just the thing.  I have finished the comfrey bed.  5 lines of comfrey 2′ apart.  It takes up about ten foot of the allotment.  This is pure hardcore and I could not get a spade or fork into the ground more than 6″.   Best to put comfrey here because I doubt if anything else will grow well here.  

As I was digging, I had to take out the horse radish.  Now this is a serious plant with a seriously impressive root system.   I doubt that I will have got all of the roots out but this will be done during the year.  I am not sure whether to plant the roots again or put them in the green bin.  I never use the roots to make horse radish sauce so there is no point in having it.  I thought of using it like comfrey but the leaves do not break down as easily as comfrey.  In fact I was raking up the fibres from the old leaves yesterday.  I would need them to rot down much quicker than this. 

I am really glad that I did not take the potatoes to the allotment.  It was far too wet and cold to plant them.  That was with a south westerly wind as well.  The wind did blow a bit too. 

I took out Eric’s old cabbage plants.  They were riddled with club root.  I will not be planting brassicas on this part of the new allotment for a few years. 

I have decided to put the sweet peas where I have dug over.  I will have at least two rows. Two or three tree posts will give them stability.  I will use canes to make the basic structure and then use string to hold them up.  If you plant the string when you plant the sweet pea, the string is trapped in the ground.  You have to use nylon string though or it will rot off.  I will put the runner beans here too.  Two tree posts at each end should be enough to keep the beans up.  (I know, I know, I have said this before.)

Chatting down the allotment and they think that April will be as hot as last year.  No spring then?  I am seriously thinking about planting out the potatoes.  Maybe leave it for another couple of days though. 

Spent some time in the greenhouse pricking out some broccoli and winter cauliflowers.  Everything, including the cucumbers, is  surviving.  Nearly run out of pots but I am hoping that I can plant out things like lettuce next week.  This will give me some pots to use.  I did buy some more pots but I want to use these for the sweetpeas and leeks.  They are the ones that you can plant with black sides and no bottom.  I also bought some of the trays with individual compartments for planting some more peas.  This is the first time that I have grown peas in the greenhouse. I usually just plant them in the soil.  I have no misses this way though and the mice and the pigeons will not be able to take them either. 

I am being very strict with washing pots and trays.  I think that this has benefited the seedlings a lot.  I am washing them with warm water and a car detergent. 

I will continue to dig over the new allotment and try to get rid of all the weeds in the really bad hard core area.  This is where I will plant the horse radish I think.  I can’t use it for anything else.�

Well, I finished off digging out the weeds of the hardcore area.  The soil there is very good because this was where all the leaves and horse muck was left in previous years.  It is a shame there is 2′ of hard core underneath it. 

I dug out another long trench about 4′ down and dug over the bottom with a fork.  I put all the weeds from the hardcore area at the bottom of the trench. Couch grass, docks, dandelions and whatever else.  On top of that I put two old jumpers and two old shirts and I will cover these with some cardboard.  Turf will go on top and then the soil will be put back.  This will make a brilliant runner bean trench. 

On the hard core area I now have three lines of comfrey and nettles two foot apart right across the allotment.  I have put down 6 2′ slabs to put my shed on.  They are not levelled yet but I will do that when I find my spirit level.  Someone has nicked it…  I am going to set up a tea making station with a little gas stove and kettle.  Together with my solar powered sun bed I will be in paradise. 

I rang the council today.  They said that they were going to or should I say the contractors are going to compensate me for the mess they made on my allotment. 

Thanks a lot for your support Rob Marris MP. It shows how much clout an MP can have and it is little things like this that gain  a lot of support.  �

This morning I pricked out two trays of lettuce.  I don’t need that many but I hate throwing away seedlings.  I planted some more peas in those sectioned trays.  Kelvedon Wonder are the ones I am planting at the moment.  I need more pots. The brassicas are the next to need pricking out.  I like to plant them in individual pots because they are less prone to club root when they are put out.  I think, and this is only a theory, that preventing the roots from being damaged stops the fungi from entering the root when the plants are very young.  If you are careful when knocking out the plants from the pots, the root ball stays intact and none of the little root hairs are damaged.  There is no way in which club root fungi can enter the plant. 

Everything is still alive although the cucumbers seem to be a little taken aback by the frosts.  Maybe it was a little too early for them Tone…

I went down to the allotment this afternoon to continue to ‘dig’ over the bottom plot near the car park.  About 6″ below the soil there is a thick layer of hardcore that Eric and I put there when it was a car park. When the contractors came in they did not make the car park as big as we had.  So it’s my fault that the hardcore is there and I cannot complain.  It will be a great place to put my comfrey so I am not really concerned.  I decided to bury all the weeds in a 4′ trench. This included docks, dandelions, and couch grass.  Most people believe that they would be able to reach the surface from this depth and continue to grow.  They never have before.  I cover them with some turfs and then put the soil back on them.  I am also digging out horse radish but this will sprout from roots at this depth.  I am taking the horse radish out completely.  I will plant it again in the corner with very little soil but lots of hard core. 

I have kept all the nettles Urtica Dioica as well.  I am going to plant them in the hardcore with the horse radish.  I have no idea which will win out.  I am transplanting the comfrey into the area where the soil is a little deeper.  I will probably use the area that I have trenched for the runner beans. 

The nettles will have two purposes.  They will provide a good habitat for a number of different butterflies and will be used to make a liquid manure.   Nettles are quite good at taking up nutrients and I am hoping that the hard core rubble contains a lot of plant nutrients.�

Particularly when first starting the allotment.  A young lady came over to my allotment and asked me how I got my allotment looking as good as it did.  I said, well I dig it a bit, fork it a bit, put a bit of muck on it, hoe it and rake it.  Now if you do that for 30 years, you will have an allotment like mine. 

I am going to have to shift some concrete slabs onto my allotment and even with the barrow that is hard work.  I will be laying them level using a bubble and that is hard work too.  Digging the new allotment will be quite challenging even though Eric kept it very free of weeds.  I am not going to touch it until he takes off all his stuff. 

The trouble is there are a lot of new people taking on allotments and it seems that it is the new fad.   They are interested in instant gardening.  Designer gardening, colour coded, and forest barked.  We will be having the gravel mulches with individual carrots sticking out and a decking area for wine and nibbles. 

Give me back the days when you could only get down the path with the tractor and even then it got stuck.  The overgrown damson trees, the eye hight nettles and  dock  meant that you could disappear in your own world because no one would dare risk cutting through the undergrowth to get to my allotment.   

If the new allotmenteers dig their allotment and put a little of themselves into it in the form of time and effort they may continue with the commitment.  Otherwise I can see that they will keep it up for a year and then we will no longer see them.�

And what will poor Tone do then…  Get blooming cold.  Spent Friday morning pricking out a variety of seeds in the greenhouse.  It was boiling so I thought that it was hot outside.  Outside it was chilly but not too bad so I decided to go down to the allotment and spray the garlic with aspirin again.  There are two of them that are showing signs of eelworm attack. 

Got up to the allotment and had a word with the bloke that has taken the allotment that has my slabs on.  He said not to worry about moving them because it would take a bit of time to get that far down the allotment.  I want to move them onto the new allotment though.  I will do that over Easter.  I will use them as a base for the new shed. 

The allotment was very cold.  We are at the top of a hill and on the north side so when north winds blow we get the full blast. 

I got the compost darlek emptied.  I forgot that I had put some turfs in there and the soil was very good.  I was going to put the shed here but I may put it on the new allotment because the  part that I am digging now used to be the carpark and is full of bricks.  No use for growing anything but comfrey.   I am going to transplant the comfrey plants near to the path down onto this rubbish ground.  It will give me a buffer piece of ground between the carpark exhausts and my crops.  The shed can go here too. 

It is trying to snow at the moment so I don’t feel inclined to go to the allotment.  I may go out and prick out some more of the seedlings.  Everything is surviving at the moment.  I would like it to get a little warmer though.

The forecast for the next two days is for overnight frosts.  I am hoping that I will be able to protect the seedlings with bubble wrap and fleece.  I still haven’t got a parafin heater.

I am seriously running out of  3″pots so I must go down to the garden centre on Monday.  I am going to a christening tomorrow so that is the whole day gone.  I pricked out the runner beans, the courgettes and the cucumbers.  I still need to do the sweet corn.  The brassicas and the lettuce will need pricking out very soon as well.Â

I was pleasantly surprised today when the weather turned out to be quite mild.  I checked in the greenhouse and everything seemed to be growing well if very slowly. 

All the sweet peas are through and growing well.  I will transfer them to individual pots over the weekend.  Make sure you label them properly Tone.  It really irritates me when I think that I can remember what is in each pot.  Make sure you label the brassicas, especially, too. 

The weather forecast for the weekend is not too good.  There seems to be a possibility of snow and nasty northerly winds.  I might get myself a little paraffin heater for the greenhouse just in case.  It will help to bring on the seedlings in any case. 

I am thinking of going up to the allotment and starting on the new half allotment  I have decided to take on.  I cannot do too much because Eric still has a lot of stuff on it.  I hope that he leaves the slabs because I might put my shed on them instead of my original half allotment. 

I will also plant the onion sets in Dad’s garden.  I will not have room in my allotment if I am going to keep to the rotation.    The rotation this year will be onions, carrots, parsnips and beetroot.  (possibly sorrel)  on the top plot.  Potatoes, runner beans and salad leaves on the middle plot and brassicas, sweetcorn and peas on the bottom plot.  Every thing else will be squeezed inbetween or put onto the new allotment.  I wanted to dot the sweet peas and the climbing french beans inbetween the other vege.  It worked quite well last year using a 4 cane pyramid.  Now I have the full allotment maybe I will have separate areas for them.�

I went down to the allotment on Sunday but only had a look around.  The secretary of the committee had a word with me about the mess the contractors put onto my allotment.  I said that I had not telephoned them back (Over worked and underpaid again) but I would as soon as I could.  Forgot again today until I sat down here to say what I did on Sunday.  However, I have said that I will take over one of Eric’s allotments.  I am not sure that I have made the right decision though.   It is a very good allotment except that there is water on it.  I might try to raise it up like my other one.  Now before anyone starts to complain, it is a half allotment and with my half only makes one allotment.  Some people are complaining about allotmenteers that take on 2 or 3 allotments excluding others that might want them.

Everything is growing well but I am worried that the cold wind this week will affect the seedlings in the greenhouse.   I lost 4 tagetes last week but everything else seems to be growing well.  Peas are showing and the sweet peas are getting quite big.  All the onions are standing bolt upright in their individual pots.  Potatoes are chitting away well.  Red onions have germinated and so have the leeks.  Lettuce is growing big and my new pot of mixed lettuce from about three or four packets of seed has germinated too.  The sweet corn, french runners, courgette and cucumber are all through.  The aubergine has shot up and is a bit leggy.  All the brassicas are through as well. I will need a lot of pots for all these.

I am quickly running out of 3″ pots.  I like these because they are not too big and not too small.  I bought some more seed on Sunday.  Got some free peppers, poached egg plant seeds, pumpkin seeds, and some F1 brussel sprouts.   I got Beford sprouts and I have grown them before but they are susceptable to disease so I thought that I would get a more modern variety as well.

I must have looked at this blog 10,000 times because that is the number of times this blog has been read.  Amazing but true.  I only started writing this to remember what I did over the year.  Store the photographs that I took maybe.  Who wants to know what I do.   I am an amateur gardener and can only garden at the weekends.  Will I have time for the other half allotment.  We shall see…

I am allowed one exclamation mark.   If I use two or more, my students will tell me off.  This rant of mine and its connection to gardening will become more apparent towards the end… (the elipsis is for effect)

  There is no advantage in giving the impression that science has a more privileged and clearer insight into how the world works than other world view.  As I tell my students, science is merely an intelligent interpretation of data.    Whether the views of others are scientific or not is of no consequence outside the rarefied atmosphere of the academic journal.   In the real world people perceive risks in different ways to scientists and they are entitled to interpret the data as they wish. 

As Einstein said the Russians aren’t all wrong and the Americans aren’t all right.  There are now thousands of synthetic chemicals that have been released into the environment and their effect both individually and synergistically have not necessarily been fully assessed.   I find that I am not totally reassured that chemists have understood the biochemistry.  It only takes one molecule or one photon to alter genes and cause cancer.  The more molecules you have the more likely you are to encounter them and the risk increases.  But it still only takes one molecule.  I would rather garden naturally. I think that it is absurd to use the word organic but you might have the same objection to the word natural as well.  I still like to use science to grow better vegetables and I am experimenting with salicylic acid (aspirin).  This is now produced synthetically.  The fact that I have read the related literature and can interpret the data connected to its use means that I can make a slightly better judgment about how I use it. I would like to believe that I am using a chemical that is found in nature; that has arisen in plants through evolution and that other organisms have evolved to deal with it.  We do not see great swathes of soil contaminated by salicylic acid. 

I do not use glyphosate because it is synthetic and there seems to be no organisms that have evolved to deal with it.  It remains in the soil.  I might be wrong. I possibly am but I will not loose any sleep if I am wrong.  Science’s reputation is diminished when claims are made in its name when in reality they are merely opinions.  These are my opinions anyway and I do not claim them to be scientific in any way.