Wig Wam Bam!

What lovely weather for this bank holiday weekend!  Lots of outside activities in the sunshine which included climbing around on the flat roof to clean the window paintwork, soffits and clear out the gutter, going out for a long run (v hot!), visiting friends, a trip out to the farm shop all on top of normal weekend activities.

But I also went to the Hill in the sunshine and got a few jobs done.  First of all I was delighted to see the Pentland Javelin potatoes planted four weeks ago are now showing the first shoots - hurrah!

I pulled up the last of the leeks which I'd left to flower on the basis that they are not actually flowering, and this year is not the one with the time to bugger about with experimental leek seed/seedlings which may or may not come to anything.
 

This left a lovely quarter of a bed at the end of the potatos which raked over and planted a score each of red and white onions bought ealier from Poundland; and then treated both potato beds with a few handfuls of BFB.

That just left me time to put up a couple of wigwams for the beans on one of the beds which I limed earlier in the week.  Not that I've got any beans sown yet - although I did look out a bad of compost, pots, trays and some of last year's saved bean seeds when I got home - but alas - actually sowing them is a job for another day

A Quick Hour

I'm very much enjoying the evenings getting lighter!  I managed to sneak an hour in after tonight's club run - even though it was definitely on the night side of dusk at 9.15pm.

I finished turning the lime into what will be the beans and peas beds this year.  It's May, so with these two allocated beds ready, I'd better acually sow some seeds.  I very rarely sow direct, it's all a bit more controllable in pots at home then when you plant them out - voila - instant allotment!  I must get on with that, and I need to put a wigwam up too for the climbing beans. 

I never really have the knack of peas - I can't settle on what's best in terms of protection or support, and end up with peas full of pea moth grubs, and looking a right ol' straggly mess. I do like peas though!

Before I left, I emptied the last of the daleks which has been full for a year and moved the empty to the next bed along.  The contents of this one are particularly dry and not well rotted, so a lot will have to go back for another go.  

Well, I say not well rotted, but I couldn't actually see what I was doing by this point, so did the sensible thing and retired to the clubhouse for a beer. 

Lime, BFB and Maths Fail

Being rather organised on the plot this Spring (it won't last) I have an approx rotation/sowing plan sorted out - as opposed to reclaiming beds from the jungle and hurling in anything anywhere that was ready to go in , which was last year's strategy.  It worked, in that I had a lot of veg late summer and over winter - the brassicas I have been particularly pleased with - but that's a bit haphazard.  

Not only do I have a plan for this year in terms of what goes where, I'm also affording the plot a rare treat by buying some lime (for where the peas and beans will be, and some BFB for everywhere else), on the basis that the homemade compost is a bit hit and miss, and it can't do any harm to give everywhere a bit of a boost once every 5 years or so. 

The allotment store shed is the place for these sort of basic provisions, and so after I went to the tip in the lunch hour to ditch the brassicas, I nipped to the Hill, found Handyman Paul, made him immediately stop what he was doing and dragged him up to the shed to weigh out lime and BFB.  

Pleased that I knew how many sq m the beds cover (6sq m per bed), I was stumped with the question of how much lime/BFB was needed per sq m. Furious googling and some maths lost out to 'well, a couple of kilos sounds about right, and a bit more of the other' - a good investment of £3.70. 

I found an hour this evening towards dusk to go back and apply the lime and fork it in (mostly), and this will be for peas and beans this year.  Bit of a shame that the broad beans are growing away nicely a few beds away, but you can't have everything.

Brassica Massacre!

Despite the lighter evenings, other commitments mean that I'm still fairly reliant on the weekends to go to the Hill, so if the weather is not good (last weekend) things I want to get done don't always get done.  No wonder I'm on the back foot for much of the time!  However, I was pleased today to do two important jobs.  

Firstly, I planted the rest of the potatoes (Maris Piper - although anyone's guess as to whether I'll get any decent bakers out of them) - half into the newly delek-composted bed, and half into the next bed along.  

I still have a handful of leeks in that bed in bud - happy to leave these for the insects - and incuding one which looks like it's jumped past the flowering bit and has what appears to be tiny leeks sprouting.  I vaguely recall that these can be planted (must look that up to see how much of a faff that is).  

The second job was to give the heave ho to all the sprouts, purple sprouting and kale.  These have been left to flower for the insects for the past few week, but I think that the pollinators should have enough to be going on with at this point.  

All the plants are going to the tip rather than into the dalek composters - a wise choice given how much volume they take up (can hardly get in the car) and that brassica stems are like broomhandles and take forever and a day to rot down.  

Not enough time before dark to tidy up the scene of brasica carnage left behind, but there was enough time to pull a dozen sticks of rhubarb to bring home.    

Dalek!

It's marvellous to have a bit more flexability to go to the Hill now that the evenings are lighter.  Although all that means in practise is that I go later and I'm still caught out by dusk.  Today I had two jobs to do - and of course only got the one done for the reason above - so the maincrop potatoes will have to wait another day. 

I finished digging up the parsnips (parsnip soup perhaps, on the cards) and that freed up space for me to empty one of the dalek composters and spread the contents over half of the front bed - the other half to where I planted the first earlies last week.  

This is not the ideal time to empty composters - Nick raised a good point in his comment about chucking a load of compost/mulch on top of the beds over Winter and letting the worms/weather do the digging for you, but then he sounds more organised that I have am! 

I sumo wrestled the dalek into submission, and relocated the empty unit on the next bed along. 

Anything totally un-rotted from the top of the bin went back in for another go - and I added a couple of bags of horse manure from the manure heap to start it off.  

The 'better' stuff at the bottom I spread about a bit, and roughly forked in.

It is not what you might call a seed bed - being what you could charitably describe as being 'a bit rough', but it'll be good enough for me to plant potatoes, I think.

Raaaaaaaain!

It's been really gusty over the weekend and this afternoon had squally showers.  I thought I might miss these going to the Hill this afternoon, but not a chance.

We all know that it has been a very, very wet indeed over the past couple of months, so I've been in no rush to get things sown.  As far as I'm concerned, there has to be a bit of give and take between me and Mother Nature regarding an acceptable timetable of events - I put things in the ground to suit a busy life, and she chucks an approximation of appropriate weather my way in order for stuff to grow.

However I was guilted into dealing with the potatoes today - despite the showers - after hearing Gardeners Question Time panel on the radio showing some incredulity that a chap had been so lax as to not have his in at this late stage.  Supercilious beggars.

 A quick fire fork over of half a bed (pulled out some couch grass roots) then dug four ditches for me to put the first earliers in (pentland javelin).  As they grow, I'll level the ground.  I find this is easier than planting them in the flat ground and earthing up (which is hard work, and I invariably don't bother), and then I get pototoes going green as they are exposed to the light. 

Dug a couple of parsnips, and pulled a bit of rhubarb and called it a day.

What Happened to the Easter Weekend?

So all the time stretching before me over the Easter Weekend has somehow evaporated and I've only managing to get to the Hill for a single session.  Having said that, it is still so incredibly wet underfoot that even running a fork over the beds is backbreaking work, and I suspect does no real good.

The day length and warmer weather has cause all the kale and purple sprouting into a cloud of yellow flowers, so the weeds are realistically not far behind, so I must not slack! 

Spurred on by Richard-three-plots-down, I have bought seed potatoes this week.  He's got all his earlies in, and given it's now April, it's about time I did too, wet or not.  In fact their spindly chits don't look great, and I'll let them sit in egg boxes for a week to beef up a bit.  What I do have ready to sow is parsnip seed.  

I have had the best crop of parsnips EVER this year, so how to replicate that?  Perhaps use the same variety and sow at the same time of the year?  

You'd think, but no, I have bought Gladiator F1 and not the highly successful Hollow Crown, and I'm sowing them six weeks later than last year too.  Not sure what the opposite of learning from experience is, but this is a good example.