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.

Some Time Better Than No Time

It's been a busier than usual weekend, and despite the welome extra daylight that we are now enjoying late afternoon, I still struggled to do what I wanted at the Hill.  However, a snatched half hour is better than nothing so I made my way there with the intention of sorted out a bit of my 'immediate tasks' list.

I need to buy and apply lime to where I'll be sowing peas/beans this year, ditto with BFF for everywhere else, sow parsnips, zip over the areas where annual weeds are showing up, fork out the emerging couch grass shoots/roots, pick kale and purple sprouting, dig the last of the leeks and a few parsnips. 

Well I was not going to make much of a dent in that laughably long list, but I did bring home a large leek, a cabbage (maybe one more before the last couple go to seed), a large bag of kale (split 3 ways with friends later), the same of purple sprouting, and dug some parsnips.  Maybe one or two more diggings of these before they go woody.

There are signs of the broad beans, the garlic is doing v well, and I'll soon have enough of the Winter crops out the way to empty and move the two compost bins waiting to shove up to their next positions. 

Need to think about potatoes - Richard-3-plots-down has his first earlies in, and we'll soon be into April.  It feels like Nature is on the starting blocks - and I don't want to let my good winter progress slip now that I have the plot in decent shape!

Best parsnips ever!

Finally it has stopped raining - hurrah! - so off to the Hill this afternoon in some lovely Spring sunshine, clutching a packet of parsnip seeds in my hand.  

Last year's planting plan of 'put in what you have ready in the bit of land you have ready' was not what you might call organised but it certainly worked, with some fab veg - these parsnips and cabbage a case in point which I bought home with me today. 

But the 'bung it in' approach does not have any reference to rotation and all that stuff that you are supposed to do in order to keep the gound healthy, as well as the crops in it. 

Being rather more organised this year (so far!) with all eight main beds with veg in at the moment, or ready to planted up means that I can choose where to grow this year's veg.  A slightly limiting factor is that the garlic is already randomly planted in 'A1', and I sowed the broad beans in 'B1', but I will have to work round them.

I fished out my trusty John Seymour to tell me what should be where, and based on where the spuds were last year (C1 & C2), I worked out where I wanted to sow the parsnip seeds. 

However, by the time I'd cut a couple of cabbage, dug a healthy selection of parsnips chatted to Handyman Paul, who kindly asked after mum, and Richard-3-plots-down who came to pick my brains on the best recommended Canary Island, I was out of time.

Parsnip seed - if not parsnips themselves - will have to wait another day.