Down on the Allotment

And finally, Aldeburgh contd........................

2009-06-28T21:53:00.002+01:00

A day trip to Southwold whilst staying in Aldeburgh was great fun. There is a lot to see and do in this small seaside town which apparently was very popular with Londoners who used to travel up by steam boat from London Bridge before the roads improved in the 1920's.

There is a pier. wonderful sandy beach. A great walk along the beach to the Southwold harbour. Of course there is Adnams. They have their brewery here. And a very classy upmarket Kitchen and Cellar shop. We bought our lunch in a small bakery which had a sign saying, apologetically, that they did not accept £50 notes. I would not know what they looked like if you waved one in my face.

Best of all was reading the local town magazine while having our afternoon tea. It is called the Southwold Organ. The first page inside is entitled Town Jottings where we discover that an application has been made to the town burghers for a rickshaw service to operate in Southwold. As you can see, one of the Councillors was expressing concern based upon his experience in London a while back when he was driven at breakneck speed by a Latvian.

The meeting was less than enthusiastic about requests it had received to operate rickshaws in Southwold. Cllr Tobin was concerned as taxis had to meet stringent requirements, and he felt more information was needed about their intentions and plans. Cllr Miller shared his own rickshaw experience. This had been some years ago in London when he had been pedalled around such places as Trafalgar Square at a tremendous rate by a Latvian. It had been horrific – not expensive, but terrifying. He ended by saying that Waveney had indicated it was not keen on rickshaws on the grounds of congestion, but he thought it should be on the grounds of safety. Rickshaws were very, very scary. The Town Mayor noted that it was difficult enough to get a car down the street. It would be chaos. The Deputy Mayor was equally unimpressed. They were not what Southwold was about. Cllr Windell was concerned about congestion and reluctantly agreed with Cllr Miller. It was a good idea, but not feasible. Both Cllrs Allen and Winter added the longer perspective. Cllr Allen remembered the pedalos of 15 years ago. They had caused problems then even with the traffic of that time. So rickshaws were not a good idea. Cllr Winter added that the matter of rickshaws had been discussed before by the Town Council several years ago, and had been turned down for the same reasons. The meeting agreed not to approve the requests.

Certainly not ! Couldn't possibly have rickshaws hurtling around out of control in Southwold. They are very, very scary !

Aldeburgh contd................

2009-06-21T20:20:00.002+01:00

So, to continue the walk through Aldeburgh allotments.............................

I came across one chap who was walking down the lane and I chanced on a conversation, given that I was in the country and folk are supposedly friendly, who when I asked if he had an allotment, replied that he had the largest one in the whole of the allotments.

The story goes that he had a ten pole plot for some time. Then, twenty odd years ago, the council decided to give up its parish horse grazing field and add it to the plots. This was the equivalent of twenty poles. So my friendly allotmenteer applied and acquired half the field. Then when the other half sharer gave up he applied and got the entire twenty poles.

Now my quess is that this couldn't happen today because interest in allotments has grown so much that there must be a waiting list in every town and county.

Anyway, this kind allotmenteer was quite pleased to show me his plot/field/smallholding - twenty poles. It was surrounded by tall hedging on all sides and entry was gained via a secret garden style door. He had every space covered and I cannot imagine him ever buying a vegetable in a shop. Of particular interest was that he didn't have a hut. He had two or three shelters which kept his pots and trays and tools dry. These shelters were covered in clematis and other climbers, so you could not actually make them out. So there was nothing to break into and you would therefore not store valuables in the open air. This makes good sense on an allotment and is worth thinking about on a city allotment.

This wise allotmenteer indtroduced me also to the tree mallow which I had never come across. It self seeds and he has several giant versions of this decorating the plot. They are very attractive and again I shall look out for a seed for these (he wanted to offer me some but they were none forming just yet).

It pays to look out for allotments on a holiday like this if only to see what the other half of the UK are doing.

Aldeburgh

2009-06-15T21:02:00.003+01:00

This is a short account of my holiday in Suffolk. It goes something like this.

We walked a lot. We talked a lot. We drank a lot of Adnams beer. We ate well.

And one of the highlights for me was the walking. As you may recall, I had a hip replacement last August and and have been recovering slowly but surely ever since. On this holiday I discovered the joy of walking. For the first time in twenty years I was able to stride out like a normal human being. No limping, no grimacing with the soreness and no stick. And to top it all, I felt good.

Which is why I fell in love with this walk. It started on the sea front at Aldeburgh by the fishermans huts. Walking along the sea front towards Orford you have to go down onto the driveway that leads to Aldeburgh sailing club and marina. It's easy to then find the footpath that leads you along the River Alde in the general upward direction of Snape. You travel about a mile or just less and take a clover path across the fens. This winds its way through the wonderful reeds and grass that make up the iconic scenery in Suffolk. You see herons feeding and hear the beautiful skylarks singing their hearts out as they ascend. This walk is truly transcendental. Eventually you come to some pastures where cows graze and stare as you traverse the well signposted footpath towards.........Aldeburgh allotments ! you reach them via a foorbridge and the footpath is routed right through the middle of the allotments. Can you imagine a better walk ?

I used to get up at 7am and do this walk before fetching fresh baked bread and the newspaper. I cannot think of a more life enhancing way to start the day.

Gnome goes to Cambridge

2009-06-08T21:31:00.005+01:00

Gnome has been abroad again and has just returned from Cambridge and Suffolk. Posts over the next few days will be an account of his trip.

Land of the academic, Gnome was feeling like a fish out of water.Until from the balcony of his hotel room, he spotted a herd of bullocks feeding on the pasture on the opposite side of the River Cam. This is a popular route for students walking and cycling to their colleges. To see them travelling past this herd of cattle, with neither party batting an eyelid, brought the plight of the Madeira cow home to me. The juxta position of the cow in her shed and the bullock on the pasture said two things to me. Madeira is a very large mountain with very little flat surface other than that achieved by terracing. Cambridge is as flat as the proverbial bullocks pancake. Cambridge was designed for bullocks. Madeira was never intended for cows. It's a sad statement about Gnome's foreign travels this year. The land of the sad cow and the country of the satisfied bullock.

It also triggered memories of seeing the herd instinct being demonstrated to me several decades ago. The demonstrator went into the field of bullocks - possibly twenty of them if memory serves me well - and they all began to approach him, some at a run. He removed his jacket and placed it flat on the ground. The bullocks all came up to the jacket to see what it was, but amazingly they were all in a perfect semi circle. As the demonstrator moved closer to the jacket, this perfect semi circle of cattle all moved backwards. It was symmetry in motion !

Later in the day, Gnome went in search of a pub for a pre prandial pint. Within the centre of Cambridge this proved a challenge and the only pub that could be found was the Eagle. Like most pubs these days, it could not survive on beer alone and had an extensive menu which was served at numbered tables. I expect you have all been to something similar. It brought to mind the possibility of deciding to change meals when the food was arriving by jumping tables. It was in here that we enjoyed the humour of sharing a back room with two other parties. One, an American student entertaining his well heeled parents and two female students who were loudly talking about how strange it would be to save oneself for ones post celebate love. This included the graphic fantasy of lying waiting on a bed for the magical moment. The conversation was a bit more racy than this and I wondered how much time would go by before the wellheeled American party clocked what was being said across the room. "Hubert, we hope you are saving yourself, my boy !"

This being the land of books I was disappointed to discover that the local Oxfam book shop was not up to my standard. What is my measure for a good Oxfam book shop you ask. Good point. Basically it means that I can go in and browse for about twenty minutes and come out with at least one book with interest to me, or possibly a speculative read. Cambridge Oxfam definitely did not meet my standard. This is possibly because a lot of people sell books in Cambridge - either in shops or on market stalls. One supposes that students make money by selling their books, and the level of quality being donated to Oxfam is lower than other towns and cities. Another way of knowing that my standard is going to be met is by the way that books of interest are displayed - and turnover is important because shelf space can be continually filled. Now, one of the Oxfam shops in Edinburgh meets this exacting standard. They sell quite collectable early Penguins at £1.99 and display them in clear plastic wall hanging pockets. Thats an attractive way to display your wares. Another way of judging a good Oxfam book shop is the volunteer staff and their commitment to selling and knowledge of what they are selling. Take all these measures together and it adds up to the branch of Oxfam that hit the spot for me (leaving with a bag of four books that I genuinely wanted to read) - it's in Woodbridge, Suffolk.

Daylight Robbery !

2009-05-26T11:46:00.003+01:00

So totally occupied was this wee timourous beastie that he never even blinked an eye when the picture was taken.

Gnome was in the greenhouse and heard a shout. "There's a thing in the bird feeder and it won't move. I can't hang the washing up." Gnome donned his John Wayne stance and strolled across the lawn. " I ain't gonna let that darned lil' crittur harm you ma'am." Slowly the washing got pegged and still the wee beastie munched on. At this point Gnome fetched a camera and returned to slowly walk up to the bird feeder . The mouse continued his feast completely oblivious to the presence of Gnome and the electronic beep of the camera. If it was the same mouse that entertained by jumping from thin strands of honeysuckle whenever a bird arrived to feed on the nuts above then it was highly improbable that he was deaf or old. Perhaps he was so hungry that nothing was going to stop him. The only benefit was that the seed beaten demolished was a type of seed that none of Gnome's garden birds were interested in. Consequently everyone in the garden was getting fed and nurtured.

And before you know....................

2009-05-25T09:38:00.003+01:00

One minute they are not there and the next they are jumping.

It took only ten days for the beans to jump with joy at the thought of being released into the open air. Notice that the Italian borlotti style bean retains the inside of its shell almost like a pair of wings, or arms welcoming the world with the delight of a new born baby.

These are going up to the allotment today with then intention of getting them all in. There are approximatly 15 each of the Italian bean and 15 of the runner bean, an RHS recommended bean whose name has left me. I must start using the Allotment Notebook.

I dug a small bean trench and filled it with rotted compost from the compost heap. The amount of worms working away in there is astonishing. I left the trench open overnight to allow the birds to have a go. They will have as much a feast as the beans will have with regards their nutrition.

Bean Tubes

2009-05-23T16:23:00.004+01:00

Saving all those toilet paper rolls certainly pays off when it comes to sowing beans.

I have calculated that a small supermarket plastic tray (no names, they might want it back) can contain approximately 40 upright tubes. This accommodated my broad beans ealier in the year and now has twenty runner beans and twenty of these borlotti style beans that I purchased in Italy last year. They have a red mottled pod and the beans are podded, boiled and dressed in olive oil and lemon juice, allegedly.They are also runners so shall let them share the same climbing frame. It's a lot of beans but like anything in season, it's great to have a glut which you can eat as much of at the time they are at their best.

I started the day with great intentions of planting out a lot of young plant but then the rain came on and it blunted my enthusiasm. I shall look forward to spending the day on the allotment on Sunday - so watch out for some live Tweets.

Another in the Book Review series

2009-05-01T14:49:00.003+01:00

This dropped out of my birthday present bag over a year ago and it has only recently come out from under the coffee table. So, now to use it. But first - a short review.

This notebook comes under the title of the Royal Horticultural Society but is published by Francis Lincoln Limited, Publishers. Its is written by Lia Leendertz who writes for the Guardian weekend magazine. Now, I wouldn't really know that because I rarely buy the weekend Guardian because of the price and the enormous amount of reading in it. So I ususually go without a Saturday paper and buy the Observer on a Sunday instead, which is a pity because I rather think Lia Leendertz might be a better gardening writer than the nice chap who writes for the Observer magazine.

This handbook is a shiny coated A5 spiral bound book which will not take extra pages but does have a handy elasticated band that keeps the front cover securely closed, and which also holds loose papers and leaflets, or in my case seed catalogues, in place.

It has six sections: Your Plot,Planting Plans,Harvest,Journal,Expenses,Suppliers and they each do as they indicate. Each section has a shiny cover and some have a pocket to keep stuff in if its relevant, such as seed packets in Planting Plans.

Only two sections have any descriptive information about the allotment and then only amounting to a couple of pages so this information is minimal. It does not have a scratch on Jane Perrone's "Allotment Keepers Handbook" which I reviewed in September 2007. My only criticism of Jane's book was that it was not produced in the style of this Allotment Handbook. If the two could be married together then it would be the perfect allotment aid for recording and referring to for expert information.

Consequently, you might question if you would actually use much of the Notebook other than the Journal and planning sections. I shall certainly utilise the Harvest section but not on the plot but in the greenhouse so that I can measure the performance of my various tomato plants.

It is a good gift to receive because inevitably the regular plot holder will find a use for it as an allotment 'filofax', and as a holdall for all those bit and pieces that otherwise float about. But if you are buying something for yourself you would be just as well purchasing a decent notebook or better still an A5 ring binder.

Jumping in the Greenhouse

2009-04-30T21:13:00.006+01:00

Everything is jumping in the greenhouse. And the problem is space. Why did I not think about buying a bigger one ? Or is it that I am not utilising available space. There is an enormous workbench going down one whole side and the other side is dedicated to growbags for the tomatos. Too many you say ? Well last year was a struggle. The tomatos were grown from seed in 2008 and they took forever to germinate and then struggled through the summer. "Why don't you do what the next door neighbour does and buy the plants from a garden centre ?" Well I did and was fairly impressed with the variety and price so treated myself to seven different varieties and will do a tomato test during the summer - to advise you on what grew well and how much of a crop I got from each variety.

One of the cheap ways of growing flowers is to grow your own. Other than some nasturtiums and pot marigolds which I like to grow for the allotment as sign posts for bees and other positive insects, I also bought a couple of packets of dwarf sun flowers, Claret and Key Lime Pie. I'm also growing: dianthus, larkspur, godetia, cosmos, verbena, swan river daisy, rudbeckia. And I didn't pay a penny for these seeds because they all came free each week with Amateur Gardening magazine. So you get a good read and a packet of seed for less than £2. Can't beat it.

But then I discovered the mistake that I made last year and presumed that every time I open a packet of seeds I need to grow the lot. That has to be the case with some of the very tiny seed but not the bigger stuff. On top of which I also presumed it would be easier to grow everything as far as possible in large seed trays and modules for easier handling. This is a big mistake and this year I am starting most of my flower seeds off in 5 inch pots so that they take up less space on the shelf and can aslo be pricked out when I'm ready and when the young plants are ready.

The next problem is making sure that I have stuff to take up to the allotment when I am ready to fill a space. That is now easy having got the experience of last year, the first year of greenhouse production, and the infrastructure to do this. The production line depends on having gutters for the peas and other produce such as lettuce leaves etc., modules for the beetroots and brassicas, and toilet roll tubes for the beans. The broad beans have long gone in and have had a good head start. Alongside the shallots and onions. Two lots of potato are in and the remaining space on the plot is being given over to a Madeiran diagonal line of sowing for other produce to maximise on space available and to prevent me from growing too much of one thing in a long line.

Tomorrow, I sow the courgettes and marrows - hoorah. Its that marrow time of the year again.

Peat Free Compost

2009-04-29T12:18:00.005+01:00

For many years now I have been using B and Q peat free general purpose compost.

It has been very reliable and inexpensive as a growing medium. Normally retailing at less than £4, I have used about four bags of this each year for everything from pots to seed trays. Given the texture and woodiness of this compost I have presumed that it was woodland waste in the main with other green waste, hopefully obtained from council collections. It has a very thick consistency and is not great for sowings of tiny seed. Consequently I make up a concoction of my own seed compost by mixing it on a 60/40 measurement with John Innes No 1. This spreads the John Innes, which is expensive, further and breaks down the B and Q compost into a better medium for small seed. I have also discovered vermiculite which I use all the time now, for covering the seed. This ensures that I get maximum success without losing seed by burying it.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I went to B and Q to get another supply during the Easter weekend. This was caused by two factors, the first being that B and Q had revamped their packaging for their general purpose compost and it was now being sold in different quantities. Ususally in 80 litre bags, it had been reduced to either 70 or 75 litres and was being sold at the same price as previous years. Call me penny pinching, bargain hunter or whatever, I know when someone is making a profit at my expense. Not only that but I could not find the new 70/75 litre bags, they had sold out and the section in the garden centre had not been refilled. I had to settle on a 120 litre bag and if my wife had not been with me, would not have got it home in the car. This solid bag of compost was like a giant square brick. I hauled it into the greenhouse and opened it to make up my seed propagation mixture. To my amzement, it looked like nothing I had ever bought before. I also found someone else who was not delighted.

You can see from the photo above that it has the consistency of shredded carpet. I studied the side of the bag and it was described as composted woodland and green waste. It was the green waste that suggested to me that it was made out of old carpets. But there was no colour in it which then made me think of hessian sacks. Whatever it is, it threw me. Especially as I had bought so much of it. I've used it as the basis for my mixture for three weeks now and if the tomato plants are anything to go by, they are doing well. I just don't like the consistency and feel of it though.

Am I just being fussy ?

Possibly the best watering can in the world.........

2009-04-23T20:52:00.004+01:00

Gnome does not want to boast but he just could not resist posting his latest news.

He has acquired the Rolls Royce of all watering cans. Such a shiny thing of beauty. A balanced mechanism for delivering the perfect shower of water to his precious seedlings and plants. The length of the spout ensures that a significant pressure offers an accurate shower that can be controlled with the movement of ones arm. The machined brass rose is engineered to such a degree that perfect roundlets are formed as the water cascades.

This watering can will last for ever. Gnome has told sprogs that they should reserve this item on the inheritance list. It will gather in value as the years go by. And think of all those plants that will look back in time and remember where they came from and how they were nurtured.

Gnome celebrated by throwing away the plastic roses of at least three watering cans that just shrink in comparison. They cannot remain in the greenhouse. It would be like keeping a Jaguar next to a Morris Minor in the garage.

Gnome is back in town

2009-04-14T20:42:00.006+01:00

Before I resume normal broadcasting.......................I thought it might be a good idea to finish off where I left off.

We arrived back safely in old Blighty last week and now have just memories of a warm and relaxing holiday (other than for the Madeira cows who are still tugging at my heart strings). Many thanks to the historical lexicon of horticultural anthology who has filled us in with more context than was required for the short discourse on the difference between the silver and dwarf bananas. But I thought you might like to see a picture of what I was describing in relation to the nurturing qualities of the herbaceous banana plant. Here you see the mother plant with its offspring developing beneath the only bunch of fruit the parent will produce.

Unlike the Madeira cow who still leaves me wondering what state its mental health is in. While researching (otherwise known as googling) this subject I came across this descriptive quote:

While driving the winding interior roads you’ll spot sometimes one, sometimes several picturesque little white palheiros, or “cow houses”, isolated high on the farm’s green poios. Normally each square palheiro was used for one cow only, with the agriculture tools and the hay stored above the cow stall. The farmers built them so the cows would not stray, saving them from injury on the steep hillsides. Inside, scarcely seeing the light of day, the incarcerated cows spend their entire lives providing milk for butter and cheese, and manure for fertilizing the crops, without ever fulfilling their gregarious nature. Hence, Madeira is the island of sad cows.

It was an article in TravelLady Magazine (don't ask) and confirms everything I learned on that tour bus. They never fulfil their gregarious nature.

Anyway, enough of the Madeira Cow for the time being. Until my next visit to that island when I shall try and visit some of these cow sheds on your behalf and try to get some exclusive photos and interviews.

Going bananas in Madeira

2009-04-04T15:15:00.002+01:00

There are two types of banana growing in Madeira. The silver banana and the dwarf banana. The difference is in size, with the dwarf banana being slightly larger than the silver banana. There is one diffeence that makes all the difference. The price. The silver banana is more expensive.

On Madeira, the banana was introduced relatively late in the 19th century. It is particularly suited to the south side of the island. Probably because the sun shines there. Although, the fruit does need some help to ripen by having a blue plastic bag wrapped around the bunch to increase the heat and moisture. In fact, it is humidity that ripens the fruit and not the sun.

The banana is not a tree but a herbaceous plant. This explains the means by which it grows and reproduces itself. The banana plant will produce only one bunch of bananas during its life. Once they have been produced and harvested, little banana shoots sprout up from the base of the mother plant. The strongest of these will be chosen for the mother plants replacement. The rest will be destroyed. To nourish the baby plant, the mother plant is kept and only gradually cut down by reduction - by doing so it feeds the baby plant. After a year the mother plant has gone completely leaving the new production to produce its one and only bunch of fruit. Consequently it could be said that the banana plant is a perfect example of nature as parent.

This detailed and rather attractive story from the realms of natural science comes from the same tour guide who with solemn grace explained how cows are kept in sheds on the mountain terraces. One cow, one shed. But at least the banana and child see the light of day.

It reminds me of the graffitti that I once saw on the side of a coastal shed on the West coast of Scotland - Free The Lobsters. This referred to the fishing of lobsters. But at least they had the freedom to roam the sea bed.

UNLIKE THE MADEIRA COW !

Madeira my dear

2009-04-01T22:20:00.003+01:00

Gnome abroad - again. To the land of honey cake and Malmsey wine. Not had any of that yet.

Gnome has taken up residence in the Cliff Bay Hotel and is so satisfied that he wants for nothing - and he has not tried everything yet. As usual it has taken him 36 hours to unwind and being in one place - or on an island that he has never been to before - a day out today was on the cards, to explore Madeira.

Now, Gnome is not your stereotypical tourist. Most holidays have been organised by himself for the family and even trips abroad have usually been tailor made by phone or on the internet (since 2000).

So on this occasion Gnome was persuaded to take a package holiday. Gnome the Tourist. And he has entered into the spirit wholeheartedly. Well almost. He has managed to turn down all the incentives that have been cast his way on a daily basis - either via the tour rep, or by letter through the bedroom door, or by telephone in the toilet. (This call happened there because the bedroom telephone extension was not plugged in. Who has a phone in their toilet anyway ?) All these contacts were to invite Gnome to visit a time share complex close to the hotel. "It's the only one recommended by the tour company, beware of illegal touts." We have not met any illegal touts but wonder what the next legitimate contact will be, someone climbing over the balcony with a box of chocolates perhaps.

The highlight after two days was a coach tour to see the Western end of the island. We joined a coach load of other look-a-like tourists. We were in and out of the coach from 9 til 5 - sight stops (cameras out) coffee stops, mountain top stops, (cameras out) lunch stop (someone else had their camera out and tried to sell my picture to me) afternoon beach stop to look at the white sand imported from Morocco (no time for a paddle) and an afternoon return trip down some hairpin bends while trying to have a short nap.

It was April 1st. The tour guide began to tell us about all sorts of things including the reproduction habits of the banana plant. Best of all was the explanation for the little two storey narrow barns that litter the terraced mountainside. Everything is terraced - there is no flat land on the island. These barns were sometimes A framed but mostly apex roofed - some thatched, but mostly tiled. These buildings were sheds for cows, our guide explained. One shed, one cow. I quite liked this mantra. Until I discovered that if the door was shut then the barn had a cow in it. If the door was open then there was no cow. But you could not see any cows. The cow was kept in a barn to stop it from falling over the edge. I had this image of a cow just trickling down the mountainside as a result of falling over the edge of a terrace. The door was always shut to keep insects and flies away. And to stop the cow falling over the edge. The barn was two storeys high because the cow lived on the ground floor and its food was on the next floor. But then I began to think, cows eat grass. Why keep a cow when it could not graze on grass ? Why keep a cow when it never saw the light of day ? What did it do for company - more to the point, how did it ever meet a bull ? How did it reach its food ? This image of hundreds of barns, each containing a solitary cow, all over the mountain side began to gnaw at me. Then the picture became clearer and the penny dropped. "Nice one," I said to the tour guide. "One shed, one cow - yeah right - its April 1st !"

She blanked me out. Not at all, she said, it's all true.

Someone tell those G20 protestors in London - get over here quick and.............

FREE THE MADEIRA COW !!!!!

The Plot So Far

2009-03-28T18:10:00.002Z

Having transplanted the new blackcurrant bushes to the rear of the plot, where they will make a sort of screen for my grass patio in front of the shed, I was advised to feed them. What better than the big animal house manure from the vet school. So a neat collar of manure around each bush will help to suppress weed growth immediately round the base and will also offer some good nosh for the roots.

The pernicious ground elder root is still evident and in this, the third season on 12a, I continue to be vigilant. The only way to eradicate it now is by hand work. Whenever I sow seed or transplants, I do this on my hands and knees with a handfork and make certain that I remove every last millimetre of root that I come across. Eventually it will be gone but at least it will all have been done by hand.

Each week, something is sown or propagated in the greenhouse. Over the last three weeks I have:

planted two rows of Epicure potatoes and chitted my Belle de Fontanay which will start to go in on Sunday with a second row in two weeks time. The latter will be my mids even though they are lates.
planted a bag of shallots and covered them with mesh to stop the birds pulling them
planted a net of onion sets in modules to give them a head start
sown a tray of ice blue dianthus which I got free with Amateur Gardener last week. The seed was so tiny it was like dust at the bottom of the packet.
sown a packet of Oarsman leeks which I got free as a surprise packet of mystery seeds when my allotment seed order came through. These have gone into two large pots so that I can transport the seelings up to the plot when they are ready
sown some Brandywine tomatos
purchased a number of tomato plants to get off to a quicker start than last year.
and lastly sown a packet of 50 broad beans in toilet roll tubes - straight into the ground when their roots are long and stong.

So the night before British Summer Time, I am in front of myself and have opened my account with a lot to show.

Off the starting blocks

2009-03-18T08:55:00.002Z

Sunday was extraordinary.

There were so many folk down on the allotments. And they were all working, not talking. It was as thought the starters gun had gone off and everyone was running. There was the occasional conversation, but mostly there was digging. Lots of it.

On Friday I had the day off work and I went up to help myself to some manure that had just been delivered. We get notified by email when it arrives. Email order manure. The source of this particular dump was the local vet school big animal house. Goodness knows what was in it - other than goodness. Crikey, it was ripe ! I decided that I definitely could not work with animals if that is the daily assault on the senses. There was also an alternative delivery of horse manure which not many allotmenteers favour, but if you store it in your compost bin, it will attract the worms and break it down. So I decided to make a sandwich by layering the big animal manure with the horse manure.

And then I read an article in Allotment and Leisure Gardener. It was about the pros and cons of worms. Mostly about the pros. I have to admit that I have always had an aversion about touching or handling worms. The same for slugs. But I have no objection to them in the soil, although why folk rave about them being the gardeners friend, I will never know. They seem to appear only when I dig and turn a spit of soil over. They appear out of a heavy clod and never look as though they are breaking their backs over the task they are alleged to perform. I was recently amazed at the number of worms in my compost bin when I dug large spades of it over the rhubarb. That was just over a week ago and eight days later, the compost appears to have been neatly raked off to expose the rhubarb. This it was pointed out to me, was the work of the birds who were eager to gorge themselves on the worms.

But lets get back to that article. The author implied that large animals require occasional worming. It followed in my mind that large animals would not be in a vet school unless they were being treated. And many with worming medication. This must infiltrate the whole system, coming out where only manure can exit. So, has all this medication broken down by the time of exiting or is it still working its magic after being dumped. And if it is piled onto the compost heap - does it kill worms that are there waiting for the next layer of fresh material to chomp on. ?

This will keep me in discussion for some time. Particularly that point about whether worms chomp.

A strange month

2009-03-08T20:21:00.003Z

It has been a funny old start to Spring.

Last week I planted my first row of earlies which has generated a lot of interest in Epicure, the Ayrshire potato. Some sceptics up on the allotments warned me that it was a bit foolhardy. But I have planted them nine inches deep with a neat ridge on top. This should protect them from frost.

It was a day of gusts and heavy showers and it marked out a pattern for the rest of the week. There were a couple of days when we had snow flurries, the worst one on Friday.

Then we had the weekend. This was a mix of rain, wind, snow flurries, sleet and wind. It continues as I write. It has not affected the growing plan, whatever that is. I started out four years ago describing the various plans that I had for growing. These never seemed to go according to what I had painted or written. So I gave up on planning, other than which occurred to me from week to week or as influenced by other influential gardeners. So when Eileen, horticultural expert from Ayrshire, suggested that I get my first row of Epicure in last weekend, that was the start of my plan. The rest of my potato plan is simple. The next successive row of Epicure will go in next Sunday. This will be followed by the mids on a two weekly succession plan, and then by the lates. This means that over a six week period my three bags of potatos will be planted to give me a succession of these vegetables right through to the end of summer. And they will all be in the ground by the Easter weekend, which is the perceived wisdom for planting in Scotland.Thats a plan.

Not part of the growing plan but just as important is the process of getting ready for the propagating of young plants. The greenhouse needed emptying and cleaning. And that meant cleaning windows. This required a rethink and a greenhouse plan. So the bench has been moved to the opposite side to enable the tomatoes to have a west facing aspect which will prolong the amount of sunshine that they receive. Last year was the first experience of growing tomatoes and it was a bit hit or miss. I put this down to the fact that I grew everything from seed and I had not appreciated how long it took to propagate tomato seeds. This year I shall only grow one from seed, Brandywine. This got a mention in Jane Perrone's excellent article in the Guardian on Thursday. She recommended this as one of two that she thought would be a good idea for beginners to grow. I grew it last year and although it took a lot of nurturing, the fruit was excellent. So I shall then supplement this with two or three varieties of other tomatoes that I can buy singly as plants from garden centres.

So as regards to the rest of the plan, I have potatos chitting and a rough list of seeds, sitting in a metal container under the stairs, that I shall start sowing as soon as I think the snow and frosty weather has decided to recede. Now there's a man with a plan.

Chitting Bug

2009-03-01T20:26:00.005Z

What an exciting day ! Some of these beauties are now lying 9 inches beneath the soil and were also the subject of a live Twitter broadcast from the allotment.

But was I the first in with my earlies ? Not on your Aunt Nellie ! When I had finished, I wandered around the plot and discovered at least two plot holders who had planted out almost half their entire plot with potatos.

Perceived wisdom is that you have your spuds planted by Good Friday which is still about 6 weeks away. However, Eileen, horticultural expert of Ayrshire, suggested that there are two things to consider. One is that traditionally, Epicure (of that species you see above) was planted to be able to be got to market by the May weekend. This is the long weekend holiday before the end of May. Consequently they had to be planted fairly early to guarentee this. The second consideration is the condition of the soil. If it is friable then go ahead and plant at the beginning of March. So I have planted only one row and will have enough seedlings left to plant a second row in two weeks time which will enable me to harvest for about a month when they are ready.

Epicure is known in the West of Scotland as the Ayrshire potato even though the species was developed in Hampshire in the 19th Century. The soil and climate is exactly right for this type but the season, like Jersey Royal, is very short if you are wanting the distinct taste. After about a month the potato becomes very dry and floury and loses the nuttiness of the flavour.

There will be a rush to harvest and eat them. I am presuming that each potato will give a yield of one pound in weight so there was about eleven pounds at least to be gained from my first row.

Chitting is not a science other than don't put them under your bed but put them in a light cool place. On top of the wardrobe or a window sill is ok. And you don't need massive shoots either. These that I have planted have developed stubby little shoots, sufficient to do the job.

And don't let Jack get them, says Peter on the plot. Which is the concern of Lily Marlene who wonders if I have planted them a little too early. This may be correct but let us see what happens and trust in the weather not becoming any more unpredictable that it has been over the last year.

Worms in my compost

2009-02-23T21:49:00.003Z

.................but wait for it, there is worms to come................................

Sunday was one of the better days that we have seen for a fortnight and there is pressure to get the plot ready for the potatos. There was digging to be done and the remainder of the blackcurrants to transplant. Rhubarb was forcing its tiny pink heads above the surface of the earth. There is a cusp between winter and spring that is unmistakeable and don't be fooled by what the diary tells you. This solstice lark and British Summer Time stuff is created by man. The scent of spring is seen and heard .

A three metre wide strip was sufficient digging for today. The soil turned neatly. Nothing was sticking to the spade. One spit to the end then dig, turn to the left all along the line. A rhythm is begun that need not stop unless you have to be sociable. Any start after 11am will require stops as folk come down to put a couple of hours in. Although by my calculations this is reduced considerably by the amount of talking that is entered into. Perhaps a "do not disturb" sign might do the trick. But then it might be the trigger for some more naive questions.

The rhubarb needed to be covered otherwise it would race away to an early unfed start. What do you put on your rhubabrb then ? (The old ones are the best). Custard.

Each year we get a number of deliveries of horse manure from the Council stables. It is not popular with many allotmenteers for the simple reason that when it is fresh it takes a lot out of the soil, goodness that is. This is because horse manure generally is significantly more woodchips and not straw these days. The horse urine soaks into it and the process of breaking down in the soil takes a lot of nitrogen to do this.To be effective it needs to be stored for as long as possible. Unless it is used for two simple purposes. One is for filling in a runner bean trench where the beans will be planted. The other is as a topping for rhubarb. A generous thick layer all along the top will give it the moisture retention and natural woody covering that will not allow the fruit to become too long and tall.

The compost bin gets filled to the top and it only takes a couple of months to reduce considerably. The bin in the picture was pretty much full to the top at Christmas. I got hold of Big Bertha (a double handled giant shovel) and dug into to take about eight shovelfuls of this compost to the rhubarb. And that was when I made a discovery. Worms. This whole pile of manure was seething with worms. Dozens upon dozens of small thin red worms. Some long, some tiny. Each time I took a shovel of the compost out, there they were. This has to be a good sign, but what happens to them when they get tipped onto the rhubarb ? Migrate into the soil or find their way back to the heap ?

The last onion

2009-02-15T18:03:00.002Z

It was cold and damp and dreich (this is a good old Scottish word that describes a state of cold and damp, generally with a grey sky, possibly with a haagh hanging around) but then what would I know ? I am accused of not even being able to pronounce the word properly let alone spell it.

A good excuse not to go up to the plot. I remember one old timer saying that you should not dig the soil if it clings to the spade. This rules out about 360 days of the year. This was one of them. So I decided to clean the greenhouse out. I came across this onion. It was still in good order, firm with no mildew. It's amazing when you consider that we have bought only one net of onions from the supermarket since we harvested our onions. In our household this means that we had a good harvest. And this chap is the last of them.

I took the onion indoors and started emptying everything from the greenhouse. This included the three grow bags and old tomato plants. I filled a bag with rubbish of all types from the potting bench and then brushed all the old compost and dirt away. Then I started on the windows. A bucket of hot water and Ecover general surface cleaner and a sponge. I haven't finished it all. By this time it was getting on into the afternoon and lunch beckoned. I have left the roof of the greenhouse 'til next time when I can get an extension pole to fit my squeegee onto. But I emptied the grow bags onto my various compost heaps and bins. It was nearly as satisfying as digging the plot over. But that can wait until blue skies appear next weekend.

....so how did you know it was a live broadcast...?

2009-02-08T18:01:00.002Z

I could have been in bed, or in a cafe having a hot breakfast, or on the beach in a warmer climate.

But no. I can assure you that nothing would have deterred me from keeping the integrity of actually going up to the plot to send you those up to the minute tweets and telling you exactly what I was doing. Well not exactly. I didn't tell you about the lengthy conversations with another plotholder about the non delivery of horse manure and I didn't tell you about the new member who was looking for the lettings secretary to find out where her new plot was and ...... well you get the drift. What you did get was a true account of how cold it was and the few jobs that could be achieved.

But would I complain about the weather ? Not me. Bless the weather, especially the snow....it's a gift to us which we hunger for when we never see it.

(You will recall that I told you about Astronautix advising that the next shuttle would take off today but it has been delayed due to a faulty fuel valve which any engineers amongst my readers might understand. Perhaps they could phone NASA with solutions. Anyway it will now be delayed until 19 February at the earliest.)

Announcing a live broadcast from the plot

2009-02-05T20:46:00.002Z

Having discovered Twitter, and signed up to it, and put a widget on my blog, and discovered some of its potential...................................

..........Gnome has decided to give you a live broadcast from his plot on Sunday 8 February during the late morning. This will entail direct tweets from the plot while it is being worked ! Just imagine, instead of Gnomes photos and predictable dialogue and waxing descriptions of his toil on the land, you will receive, direct to his blog page, or to his Twitter site, live updates on exactly what he is up to. Whether scratching his armpit and contemplating the next bit to be dug, or doing major transplanting, Gnome will update you immediately with his antics.

Know what he is up to in real time, get a sense of turning his plot over with him, be involved, get down into the dirt with Gnome. Be here, or there, right now, or then, speak to you on Sunday.

The first day after the second...............

2009-02-03T20:51:00.002Z

Which is, allegedly, the most likely day of the year for folk to take a sicky.........

But who needs that statistic when you have snow. And not just ordinary snow but snow in London. Apparently it stopped the buses. It also clogged up all the news on BBC and ITV last night, and still they said send in your photos of the snow. So I expect it clogged up the internet. If we had snow every day would this mean that we would never get bad news ? Or was the story about snow in London and the cost to the nation for this phenomenon, bad news ?

On the bright side, it was raining in Glasgow and the snow had turned to slush and by mid afternoon there was hardly any sign of the magic white stuff in sight. So that must be good news ? We can all go back to work and to school and get on with our normal lives again. Until it snows again. It somehow feels like being ants in a woodpile.

So I had a clearout of my woodpile last night and sorted out the bloggers that appeared to have ceased posting for some months. It's a great pity that some who had been producing very good postings had not continued or found the will to survive. It's easy to lapse and the only way to keep up is to support one another. This means reading blogs that are doing something worthwhile by sharing information or plotting their way throught the universe and making sure that others are reading them also. I have dropped a number of bloggers from my blog list and added a couple of new ones, such as duck dinner dash which is written by Michelle Duck. She is currently having a challenging time with security on her allotment and she needs support and confidence at this point in time. This is due to the fact that her association does not seem to be taking the protection task very seriously. The blog that you all know I love the most, How I am Becoming an Astronaut, which is run by Damaris Sarria, informs that the next space shuttle is due to go up on 12 February - watch this Space !!

One small transplant for mankind.......

2009-02-01T16:34:00.002Z

And so we are able to cross off item number one on the long list.

You will recall that I had set myself a list for the new year and after the first month I can truly say that item one is complete. I finally dug over and forked and cultivated the strip at the top of my plot, close to the shed, where the line of blackcurrants will be transplanted. It was very cold this morning on the plot, especially when pausing for breath. There is still a large amount of ground elder to be found and it certainly the case that there is much more to be got out than I found today.

With kind help from Anna, the first blackcurrant has been lifted and relocated. It's there in the foreground. This was a small stick when I took the cutting 12 months past from one of Anna's bushes. There are eight plants like this in all but only about four or five will be transplanted. The remainder will be grown on in plastic buckets (with a drilled hole for drainage) and sold at the allotment association open day in September.

This triumphantly brings me to item two on the long list. Well nearly.

The trouble with lists

2009-01-27T20:45:00.003Z

The trouble with lists is that you forget them, or ignore them, or lose them, or blank them out. Worst of all is when you post them on your blog and allow the whole world to see them.

This is the case with my most recent long list. There were ten items on it and I have half completed the first one. The remaining items are dependent upon the first one. This creates a list jam which is ironic because the whole purpose of item one is to help items two and three to create the real jam. But that is six months down the line so I have plenty of time. Or do I ?

I left my office at 4.40 this evening and discovered that it was still daylight. The only way to achieve my list is to slow down the earths orbit around the sun thus enabling me to catch up with all the unfinished items. This will require everyone reading this blog to jump up off the ground at the same time. Lets nominate a time of say, 3pm on Tuesday 27 January. We all jump and this puts the earth into sudden trauma. Slowing it down by a significant amount of time to create a knock on delay in the onset of daylight hours. We only need to do this the once because I have got Friday off and will have enough time to rush up to the allotment and finish item one on my list.

There is the little problem of then having to catch up with the other items but we can nominate another time and date each week for the other ten items. Can't we ?