2013 will be better!

 I have been most dilatory writing my blog in 2012. Of course, I blame the weather, which has been appalling. We had about 2 weeks of summer this year - and that was in March! At the moment, everything is flooded (and it's still raining)  - no prospect of working on the allotment in the near future! For Christmas 2011 we had parsnips, carrots, sprouts, potatoes, beetroot and onions from the plot - this year it was only parsnips! However, I have started to make some improvements which will hopefully go some way to producing some good crops in 2013, no matter what the weather.

I have put in some decent wooden posts round a couple of my 'mini' plots, and put up some green netting to keep off the birds etc. Also I have started raising one of the beds, with gravel boards round the bottom, which I am filling - as and when the weather permits - with compost and manure. This will be the plot for potatoes in 2013, but I will do one plot each year, and continue improving the soil in the others. This should give both a better soil structure and better drainage. There is talk of putting a French drain round the whole site, but the clay is so thick that I doubt this will help anyone except those with plots nearest the fence.
We were due to level the area around our two containers, and seed it with grass, also put picnic benches etc to make a community garden, but it has been so wet that this has had to be postponed until spring. However, we will at some stage be putting in electricity, which will be a boon. We will also be welcoming a third container, this one for the South/South East/Britain in Bloom bits and pieces. So, despite the weather, some progress is being made. As expected (especially after such a disastrous year) a few people have given up their plots, but there is a waiting list so we expect to be full up again in 2013.

Garden Club

One of the many benefits of our village is the community spirit. The Horticultural Society - a rather grand name for a group of people who enjoy gardening - held one of their Garden Club meetings this evening, at the allotments. There are regular monthly meetings, (usually indoors!) which are very diverse, ranging from growing onions and leeks via raising chickens and pigs to talks by local garden designers. This time, it was allotment growing, which as everyone knows has been especially difficult this year, with lots of slugs, rain and caterpillars, and not nearly enough sun and warmth.

Some of the people - not all allotmenteers - who came to Garden Club







The London Shard

It was a lovely evening, but got dark too soon. We are close enough to London that the Shard is clearly visible as well as the Olympic Stadium from the site, but far enough into the country that we have none of the noise or metropolitan dirt. We had an interesting talk, and looked round several plots, each with different ideas. Some people had very narrow beds - you don't tread on the soil, but on the other hand there is a lot of hard construction, and a lot of ground is lost to paths. Some had divided their plots into 4 (as have I) for easy rotation of crops. Others had surrounded their plots with netting, to cut down on the wind and the pigeons - of which there are many!

My virtually non-existent harvest!

 I dug my Kestrel early potatoes today. It was a very small harvest - about a third of what it should have been. However, I know why - I dug in a lot of chippings to improve the soil structure last winter (which it has done) and that used up the nitrogen in the soil. So next year I will add some slow-release fertiliser eg blood fish and bone - prior to planting. At least the quality of the potatoes was good - no slug damage, no blight and very little scab. Other people have had good foliage but the crops have rotted in the ground - too wet!

Even the slugs are drowning....

April had record rainfall : so did June, and in the first two weeks of July we have had three times the monthly average of rain so far. Add to this the fact that, when it has not been raining, it has been gloomy and cold, and the growing conditions have been appalling. Everything of mine that has not been eaten by slugs has just refused to grow. I put in three apple trees last autumn, of which two seem to have taken, but the third looks decidedly poorly. So far this year, we've had a few miserable potatoes, a couple of beetroot and some mange tout peas that, although they were grown from last year's seed, have been 50% inedible. Not good! I would be even more discouraged if everyone was not in the same boat - and I use that word advisedly! When the plot hasn't actually been under water, it has been too soggy to walk on.
We are promised, at last, a bit of summer this week. Let's hope so!

Composting - and slugs

The picture shows our new composting site, with everyone working hard. There are several new bays under construction - hence the pallets - but about 8 have been filled already. It's very convenient as (unlike the old site) you can drive straight in, drop whatever green waste you've brought (there are separate bays for grass cuttings, small waste and waste that needs shredding) then drive straight out again. We also have a trailer load of horse manure delivered every Saturday, so typically a composting bay will be filled with green waste (shredded if necessary) then grass cuttings then manure, the sequence repeated as many times as required to completely fill it. The heap reduces over the first couple of weeks, so we top up each bay before starting the next.
The slugs are having a heyday with my plot. with just about everything a target. My courgettes just disappeared, so I have replaced them, put them under a cover and put slug pellets round them! Also slug pellets round my sweetcorn - which are looking particularly lacy - and pelleted chicken manure round many other things, which are looking a bit pale because of the constant rain and lack of sun.Yesterday was the first time I've managed to get up there for a week, what with work, rain and other committments!

Up and running

This is our new path/hardstanding, which has been made very wide at the composting site (so people can drive in, drop their compostable material, then do a U-turn and leave) and about 4m wide along the rest. It's one of the last of our 'big' jobs to get the site up and running. We have yet to get the water connected permanently, which will be done - we hope - shortly. We are on mains water at the moment, but this is an 'informal' arrangement with the farmer whose field we are using, and since permission has recently been granted to build some affordable housing, which will go right over our pipe, we have to have a more permanent arrangement. We also intend to start a Community Garden in front of our containers.
In the meantime, with the warm weather, everything is growing and we must water! The apples that I put in have all got lots of blossom, but (as expected) my grafts failed to take on the two rootstocks. No matter, I will try again!

Warmer next week?

In the end, given that the weather forecast is good, I planted out both French beans and Runner beans. This gave me some room in the greenhouse for my tomatoes, all grown from seed. I have planted African Marigolds as a companion plant, similarly on the plot, in between the beans and mange tout peas. They smell strongly, and discourage aphids, but they also attract slugs, so I put down some pellets as well.

Wet Wet Wet!

...and cold, too. May has carried on where April left off. We have even had a touch of frost at night, but my spuds have survived.I have pulled up a load of chippings round them, and they are now growing strongly. I've also planted out mange tout seedlings. This weekend I think that I'll put out French bean seedlings, but I shall keep runners and courgettes back for another week or so. This week we should have had our hard path put down alongside the plots, but it's rained every day, so it may not have been done.

Sowing season

April has been cold and wet, much different to March and indeed February. March was very dry, and warmer than April! Nevertheless, I planted early potatoes in March (much too early) and covered them up with about 100mm of shreddings, which protected them from the worst of the weather. They are only now breaking the surface, so hopefully we will not have more frost. I also planted later potatoes in April, which have not yet come through, and have just sown carrots, beetroot, parsnips, peas and lettuce.


The picture shows our new deer fence. There's a pedestrian gate at one end and a car gate in the middle. The next thing will be a hard path (well, a road really) alongside the plots where we put down loads of chippings last year. You can see from the puddles how much rain we've had! 200% of the monthly average for April. Mind you, we needed it!

The end of winter?

Is this the end of winter 2011-12? The weather this week has been stunning for February, and there was a work party up at the allotments this morning. We were cutting back the surrounding hedge, in preparation for our new anti-deer fence, which is to be installed soon. There's another work party tomorrow to finish off. This is one of the piles of brush that we cut back.


And this is a view of our new composting site. This has moved from a fairly restricted site where it has been for the last 10 years, and has been able to expand here. The volunteers have built a large number of new pallet bins, and access will be even better when the road just inside the new fence - and for which we will be receiving a grant - is completed. For this year only, 'prepared' compost will continue to be picked up at the old site (where it has been maturing all winter) and green waste will be brought to the new site.

As far as the plot itself goes, I have carried on digging (and taking out flints) so it should be ready for planting next month. I have potatoes chitting, tomatoes sprouting, and broad beans in pots at home.

2012 will be the second year for the new plots. As expected, some (only 5) people dropped out after year 1, but their places have already been taken by Tatsfield residents.

Winter Update

My last post was 24 October, which is a reflection of how much has been going on - or is it just that I couldn't be bothered?
November and December were both mild, so much so that I picked my last courgettes in the middle of November, about a month later than most years! And on Christmas Eve I picked beetroot, carrots, sprouts and parsnips. Together with stored potatoes and onions, and leeks from the garden, we did very well for Christmas!
Since then I've been getting on with the digging. The plot is divided into 4 mini-plots, plus a strip running down the north side for apples, rhubarb and courgettes. One of the mini-plots has had a load of manure and a load of chippings dug in, whilst another has had this and then another load of manure dug in. These plots are for potatoes, beans, peas etc. The other two are for brassicas - cabbages, sprouts etc - and this has had one load of chippings dug in, (ie no nutrients added, but the soil strucure has been improved) and rootcrops like carrots and beetoot, and onions, which has been dug and will be fertilised before planting. Actually, I've already planted onion sets through black polythene (to keep the weeds down) the same as in 2011.
On my last blog you may have seen the two supports with wires that I put up for apples. I have since bought three bare-rooted trees (Bramley, Adam's Pearmain and Sunset) which I have planted, and I've also moved two apple rootstocks (these are all dwarfing) to take some cuttings from an old tree in our garden. Not that I know anything about grafting, but we shall see.....
I purchased some Kestrel potatoes (we liked these - they were very versatile, quite heavy cropping, tasty and fairly disease resistant) and have started chitting them, and have bought some seeds, so I shall start tomatoes off soon in a propagator. Otherwise, I shall have to wait for spring, which might be some time. Unlike 2010 where the winter came early, this one has come late, with snow and temperatures of -12 last week. Now it's a bit warmer, but raining, so I can't get on the plot yet.