Preparing for spring: let’s look at the bright side…

I went to the allotment to plant my daffodils and the first thing I noticed was my fleece tent smashed down with a dead rat lying on it. Not a good start.

Then I got into the greenhouse and it had been trespassed on again: panel displaced, cigarette butts lying around and the *£$%?*%!!!$% ^&*&@@@@&$(s) had their bottom(s) on my potato bed: officially furious

—— I am in an awful temper: KEEP CLEAR of meee!!! ——–

Anyway, to add to my frustration, the ground was an icy block, so only two bulbs made their way underground, and I was put off anything to do with soil.

On the verge of crying, I removed the dead rat from my fleece and took it to the tip. After the dispatch it felt somewhat easier to pull myself together, so I decided to tackle the dreaded shed cleanup.

It was not particularly rewarding to start with: I had to build my second Gardman staging, which was left in its flatpack from last spring, with a reason – never buy a Gardman staging! It is called “heavy duty”; however, provided that you get past the nightmare of the self-tapping screws without hammering on your finger like I did, it will still need some propping as it is a bit wobbly.

Around 4 pm I managed to put it in the shed, added some more surface space through a shelf and, here you go! Not perfect, but the shed is almost in decent shape now, apart from the mud and some rubbish on the floor.

I found a crawling guest: a house spider, which cheered me up a bit (that says it all…). It still needs proper clearing up, but at least you can move around inside.

Am a bit worried for the seeds that I keep in there as it seems to get very wet inside: everything is covered in chilly condensation – will need to take care of it soon.

There is always something to do, around here!

Crop updates, preparing for spring

I have been one last time to the allotment, in between frosts and before going back to work. Timing was really good as the weather seems to be getting colder and colder, although the days are finally growing in lenght again (we are now in that phase in which sunrise is a minute earlier every couple or so days in the morning and a minute + later every day in the evening).

The cropping is not too bad: I am still on a steady supply of leeks (although the big ones are running out) and I picked spinach beet and parsley. Still no sign of mushroom, but I decided to give it another go and planted some more spores. The salad sprouts look healthy, even though they are taking a long time to grow.

Although it stills is very much digging and weeding work (and slightly boring by now), somehow I seem to have reached the winter turning point and everything I do feels linked to spring and the growing season rather than to wilting and the winter gloom!

Having read a bit more about potatoes (as last year mine was very much a tentative approach to tubers cultivation), I worked out I needed to act straight away, so I have piled up a line of manure and covered it with fleece so that the soil won’t be frozen when my earlies (Orla and Red Duke of York) chit, and I can plant them straight away.

Still need to finish clearing around the pond, but I have bought some daffodils on sale to plant when I do (hopefully next weekend). That way, I should have a spring flowering while waiting for the meadow and wildflowers seed mixes to grow. I bought compost for seed planting and fertilizers (both on sale), and some coldframes to start planting early on. And I sent in my request for organic seeds to the Heritage Seed Library.

Yesterday I also sketched a final draft of next year’s beds layout and I am pretty happy. It seems that I have more potatoes and beans seeds than room to plant them in, so I will have to dig at least one more bed in my lawn at the top but then I should be fine. And I want a screen of sunflowers at the bottom of the plot (where the shared water pump is).

I am wondering whether I should order some more manure if that is possible… anyway, today I am feeling really excited about my gardening- maybe because the sun is coming out of the clouds again – look soooo forward to spring!

Crop updates, winter maintenance

Before today’s frost I managed to go to the allotment twice over the holidays. Not much to report, really, apart from a small act of vandalism in which someone went into the greenhouse to smoke and drink, displaced the vent and threw a few things around. Luckily they did not damage anything, otherwise I would be furious. Instead, I am only baffled by how can people be so lightly irrespectful of someone else’s property and work. Anyway…

In the greenhouse, the salad has sprouted: in a month or so it should be ready to transplant outside. No sign of mushrooms, though.

Outside, I have been digging here and there – I am currently clearing the wild flower meadow around the pond – in preparation for planting. The weather has been really pleasant, with a very pale sun but mild temperature. And at this time of the year there is often a curious robin around, keeping an anxious eye on what is happening and in search of an easy catch of surfaced earthworms.

Today I transferred all my potatoes and onions – which I had previously stored in cardboard boxes – to the appropriate sacks (hessian and plastic net respectively). I must say they had kept reasonably well, although a couple of potatoes have chitted and a few onions have rotted: I have learned that I should not leave the hard neck in the onion, it seemed to be the source of the rotting. I seem to have tons of tiny potatoes from last year to plant next year: where will I find room for them?

Which reminds me that I still have to complete and publish my plan for next year…

Crop updates, planting soft fruis.

Yesterday was a great morning at the allotment!

I had been there last week but the weather was not too good, so I barely enjoyed planting the raspberries in thick heavy mud that made work ten times as hard as it should, with florid weeds coming out at every spadeful. As you will have noticed, I did not even feel like writing about it. If I have to look at the bright side, though, I must say that I found very rewarding to dig out all the abandoned berry plants on the left boundary path. Soft fruits are quite invasive, and these plants (which I should not complain too much about as they fed me through the summer) were definitely overgrowing, but my neighbours were not bothered as they do not use the path so I offered to do it myself. I divided up the uprooted plants between my neighbour and me, and I have to find a less obnoxious place for them to thrive next year.

Yesterday morning the weather was just fine and warm: it has been so mild of late that there were buttercups flowering (not that that makes me particularly happy, as creeping buttercups are one of the worst weeds in the allotment, so I welcomed their efforts by weeding out a wheelbarrow-full)!

A dozen of new strawberries (Florence, the ones the last year produced more) had arrived during the week, so I planted them and managed to find room for a couple of the raspberries I digged out last week.

One of the gooseberries cuttings I planted a couple of weeks ago has pushed out a tiny leaf, and salad is also sprouting in the greenhouse, although there is no sign whatsoever of mushroom. Phacelia is doing terribly well, next year I will plant more to keep the soil from being washed of nutrients over the winter. Parsley is doing well also, although in a less vigorous way. Rhubarb’s fat buds are emerging, a rich pink in colour: I must remember to feed with manure later on. The blueberry I planted earlier this autumn has a lots of buds, despite the soil not being acidic at all in the allotment: this is something to be monitored.

Potatoes for the new year have arrived during the week as well: they are now stored in my shed, where they should chit (although for some reason they seem to chit better in my kitchen larder).

I was tempted to go back again in the afternoon, but I have my garden at home to fix as well, so I decided to to stay and take care of that: how could I dare say I am a keen gardener when my garden at home looks like a wasteland…

Crop updates, doubts on mushrooms, protecting winter crops

Last weekend I had a quick go at planting some Meteor peas: I seem to be late again on the planting schedule. Last year I had a few free weekdays so I am now realising that having only weekends is making it very difficult to keep a steady pace. Anyway, we will see what happens with the peas and I have also put in last year’s leftover onions.

The layer of newspaper over the mushrooms spawn in the greenhouse had dried out over the week, so I made sure to give it a proper soak, and today I will check if anything has happened beneath it at all. I was so excited about growing mushrooms, but last night an expert gardener told me that they are a nuisance because once they grow they spread all over the place: this has somewhat shaken my enthusiasm, and I am not sure how I feel about them now. Being in the greenhouse, the spread should be limited but I would not want my greenhouse to be taken over either. Still, I quite like mushrooms…

I am feeling slightly drained today, emotionally drained I mean, last week being quite an exciting one workwise, so gardening is a must this weekend and I am so happy that today is a sunny day!
Besides, I have to plant winter lettuce before the winter is over: I am quite keen to get some decent crops despite the season.

As I thought a covered bed might help in achieving this, last Sunday I tested my engineering skills on building a fleece tent on a small bed. Ready-made fleece tunnels looked a bit difficult to work under, so my idea was to have fixed walls and be able to access the bed easily from the top.

The result is a bit clunky – I wanted to finish as soon as possible while the ground was still relatively warm (temperatures dropped in the last few days), so as to create a microclimate conducive to growth. I will have to refine my tent as I go along, but I still hope it will work out in the end and for now I look forward to seeing if it has resisted the wind so far!

P.S. By the way both the gratin and the pumpkin pie were delicious in the end! I did follow the recipe only loosely, though, as is my style… In the gratin I only used cheese, strong cheddar: no cream and no potatoes and in the pie I used cream instead of evaporated milk (was not quite sure what that was anyway).