Planning 'No Dig' Beds

Too late for this bit - already dug and manured ready for potatoes!

Plan for this year - create some 'no dig' beds with a view to going totally 'no dig' next year.

I found some very helpful people on the Grow Your Own forum - and have begun to stockpile cardboard. 

Another ingredient is straw - yaay! I was wondering what to do with all the spare straw left after protecting my butternut squashes from the damp soil last summer.

I have plenty of well-rotted manure from my unintentionally enormous order last year and all I need to do now is save the grass clippings instead of binning them - sorry brown recycling bin!

Am getting quite excited!

Compost

 Leaf  Sacks Rotting Down

The leaf sacks I filled in the autumn are slowly rotting whilst keeping the rotting leaves in one place too. I'm thinking of having a compost heap here, where I've put the sacks, but need some sort of containment. I already have a large, black plastic compost bin that is slowly filling up - and seems to have a resident mouse!

Allotment Soup

Leeks, onion and potato...

...plus sausages...

...equals Leek & Potato Soup with Meatballs.

Whitefly - in January?

We enjoyed the top growth from one of the purple sprouting broccoli plants with dinner tonight. I cut it during a walk with the dog, we called in at the allotment because I'd seen some purple sprouting in the greengrocers and wondered if mine was ready. 


I couldn't see any flowers but I could see whitefly!!! The weather has been too mild and hasn't killed them off. There hasn't been enough frost to kill the mustard either, so I expect I'll have to cut it down.

How to Choose

An Unwin's seed, plant and bulb catalogue arrived in today's post and I've spent a pleasurable half hour looking through it. 


The vegetable seeds and potato, onion and shallot varieties have such good write-ups that it's hard to know which to choose. The words 'extremely resistant' are very enticing but then so are the words 'heavy cropper' and 'superb flavour'. 


I'll need to find a variety of each vegetable that is extremely resistant, a heavy cropper and has superb flavour!!!  And where the onions, shallots and potatoes are concerned, I'd like them to keep very well too. My wants are few.

Sweet Potato Preparations

It's time to seek out an organic sweet potato to force shoots for this year's sweet potato crop. After last year's excitement over some late bought plants, I'm looking forward to starting a crop from scratch.

Comfrey Fertilizer

I've had comfrey growing in my garden for years now and each year I think about making liquid fertilizer with it - and don't get any further than thinking! 


Thanks to the magic of YouTube I now know what to do - this video also has some great vegetable growing tips too, especially as I'd like to try growing florence fennel.

Worth Growing Leeks

Rusty Leek

It may not look much on the outside but when I pulled it up and cleaned off the outer leaves there was a surprisingly good amount of edible leek left, in fact it looked just like the ones I buy in the shops.  Well worth growing.

Protective Measures

A lovely friend has offered me some chicken wire to make protective structures for my allotment plants! This will keep the pigeons and birds off the cabbages, young peas and strawberries. 
I've got two very useful long cloches made of fine fabric that worked excellently last year protecting plants from the worst of the weather, the birds and egg-laying butterflies!

Prostrate Broccoli

Wind Damage!

I called in at the allotment today while walking the dog. I'd expected that the gales would probably have had some effect on the sprouting broccoli, especially as I'd forgotten to stake it. Not a mistake I'll make next time. 

Although the plants are now prostrate they have not been uprooted and still look very healthy. I think I'd do more damage if I tried to lift the broccoli back up so I've made sure the pigeons can't get in and left the plants as they are. 

Mahonia Japonica

My Mahonia Japonica...

...is flowering...

...for the first time!

I just love this plant - there was a mature specimen outside my classroom window for years and I admired it every time it flowered. Now I have one to enjoy in my garden.

Thank You!

I've just been reading articles on one of my favourite sites Allotment Vegetable Growing. 


Thanks to the internet, advice and help is available from some amazing growers and while winter is here there's plenty of time to gather hints and tips to make the coming growing season better. 

A big Thank You to all the experienced growers who share their wisdom with those of us who are just beginning!

Soya Beans

One of the crops I'm going to try this year is soya beans. I have 20 seeds of the 'Elena' variety which, according to information on the web, is a type that will grow in the UK. 


The beauty of the internet is that I can always (up to now) find someone who has already tried growing whatever I'm considering. It's a help and an encouragement.

Soya Bean Growing

Seed Review

I've been looking through my seed packets and checking the dates. At the moment I've got plenty of carrot, parsnip, sugar-snap pea, lettuce, beetroot, sweetcorn, leek, cabbage and dwarf bean seeds. 


There are enough pea seeds, Kelvedon Wonder, for one planting so I'll need to get more but might try other varieties.  


I'm trying a different winter squash and hoping I'll have more success with 'Uchiki Kuri'. According to the packet it's a 'teardrop shaped Japanese squash growing to approx. 1.5kg' and it should keep well.


I hope the 'Uchiki Kuri' grow because there are only 10 seeds in the packet! I had only one seed germinate from the packet of (expensive) winter squash seeds that I bought last year - and that plant produced one very small squash. Luckily the butternut squashes grew quite well so they have compensated somewhat.

Watching the 'Allotmenteers'

I've been watching You Tube to get tips and ideas for what I should be doing on my plot this month. It's fascinating to hear other 'allotmenteers' talking to me about their plots! 


I'm looking forward to purple sprouting broccoli in the not too distant future. I imagine it's ready when the flower buds begin to appear.


Watching the videos I think I might just have a go at making a video myself. It'll be interesting to look back and see the progress.....

Allotment Journal

I received a lovely RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Allotment Journal 2012 for Christmas. It's full of useful information to keep me on track for this next year of vegetable growing. Trouble is - it's so lovely, I'm afraid to write in it in case I mess it up!