Snadgers Penultimate Plot

[Snadger]

Set up the beginnings of my Indian village with two wigwams. I locked them together at the top to hopefully make them a bit more stable.

The one with the mesh around it has Alderman peas sown around the bottom, the other has climbing French bean Cobra and Blue lake sown around bottom.



I also finally got round to planting out about 20 Chrysanthemum plants grown from cuttings. The amazing thing about these is they were rooted in a very sandy mix with old potting compost added. No heat or no rooting hormone used and I had 100% take. Fantastic rooting systems so should hopefully romp away now they are in the ground.

The main job for next visit is finding a place for and planting out swede seedlings and beetroot seedlings.

[Snadger]

After weeding the area in front of the French doors at home I decided to pay a visit to the allotment, to be confronted with more hand weeding!

I sharp got sick of that so I decided to plant out a row of Marian swede plantlets instead.. I also planted out a couple of dozen Swift sweetcorn plants. The two tomato plants that were touched with frost appear to be making a recovery so I planted those in a couple of final pots.
I re-potted my five courgette plants imto 4 inch pots as the tiny plugs they were in were well rootbound.
I managed to half fill my IBC with the site hosepipe and hopefully with the expected rain over the next couple of days it may even fill it up.

We had a swarm of bees land on one of the plots. Its a rather strange sensation walking in among the swarm with shorts and tee shirt, but I know their only interest is the Queen and there new home in a nucleus box supplied by one of the plotholders. He was explaining to me that these were native honey bees and how to tell the difference between these and Afican killer bees.

Hand watered everything that seemed to need it and left with a rather nice spring cabbage for my dinner tomorrow.
The only things left to sow and plant are mange tout peas to sow, beetroot plantlets to plant out and numerous brassicas to plant out.
I forgot to sow squash/pumpkin and cukes but may make a late sowing anyway. If not I may be able to pick up a few plants at the GC.

[Snadger]

Silly me, summat attacked my swede seedlings so I have covered them up with debri netting temporarily.

The recent downpours were needed by the veg and the weeds have flourished also. Did a bit of hand weeding and made sure stuff in greenhouse was well watered. Garlic scapes were a welcome addition to a stir fry and I am getting through the row of spring cabbage slowly, which will free up a bit of land. Sowed two lots of squash in greenhouse and side shooted toms.

[Snadger]

Finally managed to get my Mangetout peas sown in a row between two rows of tatties.

It was a bit 'parky' outdoors so after a batch of hoeing between rows I decided to retire to the greenhouse.
I pricked out my leeks into a plug tray which meant I had quite a bit of root pruning to do before planting.
I am more or less on top of the sowing and planting at the plot so now have the opportunity to go through my seed box and sow stuff that wasn't so desperate. Ramsons were the first to come to hand.

[Snadger]

I only went to the plot to water the indoor stuff, but finished up staying about 2 hours.
After watering I sorted some canes out for my tomatoes and after putting them into the the pots I rigged up some cross canes for the tops, anchored to a cross spar at each end of the greenhouse.

Raked and hoed the area I had sown my parsnips which failed and decided to give them another try. This time I mixed the seed with lettuce seeds to act as a marker and at least give me a crop of lettuce if the parsnip fail again.

Took the covers off my Yacon plants which were still in the ground. I dug the remains up managing to get a few tubers that were starting to sprout. I laid them out in a tray to carry on chitting and added some water to the tray as they were really dry. I dug over the bed they were in and this will be where my beetroot seedlings will be planted into in the near future.
Did loads of hand weeding until my back started to play up a bit.
I was pleased to see that the Jerusalem Artichokes (Fartichokes) I bought from the greengrocer in the autumn and planted in the spring, have all taken and are standing about one foot high along a boundary fence. These should act as a wind break once established.

[Thelma Sanders]

Will the Artichokes cause more breaking wind, rather than lessen it?

[Snadger]

Will the Artichokes cause more breaking wind, rather than lessen it?

I hadn't twigged the wind analogy! Well spotted...here's a raspberry!

[Snadger]

Called at the plot to just water stuff in greenhouse...……..yeah right!Should have known better. Got waylaid again as usual.

I made sure raised bed that I was going to plant my beetroot into was well watered. Planted out 20 module grown plantlets. Each module had 3 or 4 plants but hopefully they will grow in clumps and help minimise the size of the beets.
I did a bit of hand weeding and liquid fed my tomato plants. My red torpedo onions in modules in the greenhouse are now standing up like little soldiers and will soon be ready to harden off then plant out. I am really looking forward to harvesting these as I luurve onion gravy made with them.

[Snadger]

Watered indoor and outdoor stuff that needed it. Climbing beans and peas are just starting to show so put a few slug pellets around them.
I have some left over pieces of roofing felt from my house extension so placed them on top of my IBC to make a funnel for the water to the centre. They are the self stick felt which you peel the back off to use. I haven't done this yet as I may put a wooden frame around the IBC frame so that there is more of a fall to the centre. I have some spare pieces of wood at home which I can use and they will also be used for fence posts along the back of my plot.
It was sunny but windy today. I will have to wait until weather picks up and wind dies down before progressing with this project though.

[Snadger]

Measured top of IBC cage to make a wooden frame for top. This I will probably fix in position with zip ties. The idea is that the extra height tapered to the fill hole with something (yet to be decided) will give an inverted cone channelling rain into the IBC.

Sowed dwarf French beans in a tray of modules. Topped up my tomato plant containers with compost to a couple of inches below the top.

Dug over a bed after removing cardboard. This will be for my module grown red torpedo onions which I took out of the greenhouse and placed on the bed to harden off before planting. The bed has raised sides so will help the hardening process.

Did loads of hand weeding and hoeing. Applied lots of chicken manure pellets to assist growth where I deemed necessary.
I lot of my summer onion sets had pushed themselves out of the soil so rather than transplanting again I raked up the soil around them so they are on a bit of a ridge.
I used he water from the IBC to water some of the stuff outdoors and all of the stuff in the greenhouse.
Courgettes are ready for planting out so I will probably do that on next visit.

[Snadger]

I did quite a bit of graft today at plot. An area roughly 2.5m square needed turning over but the weeds were 2 feet high and the area was full of really large stones .After loosing quite a bit of sweat I eventually got it dug over, just burying the weeds.

After that I was ready for a rest so retired to the greenhouse and planted the Turmeric roots I had received in the post. I planted them all in an 8 inch pot, but only covered them slightly so as I can have a furtle now and again and see how they are getting on.

This was followed by lots of hoeing and hand weeding. The overnight rain made the hoeing a lot easier than if it had been dry.

I have a lot of largish stones on the plot and I have been chucking them on the paths as I dug them. This hasn't worked because it makes the paths nigh on impossible to weed.

I have nowhere to put them if I take them off site so I am at a bit of loss as to what to do with them.One option is I could use them in paths if I float a sloppy sand cement mix around them to stop weeds growing through them. If I put weed barrier down I could probably dispense with the cement. I even thought abut building raised beds with them.
At the end of this season I have a lot of cut and fill work to do on the plot as it is undulating and has boards along the main path to hold back soil. If the plot was cut and filled I could dispense with the retaining boards and grade the top soil to the path.This is where all the stones I have just buried will be brought to the surface again and hopefully disposed of.

[bikermike]

How big are the stones?

I chuck all my stones at an area of membrane by a bed that isn't otherwise covered. Holds it down but allows water to drain. Or mix with sand/cement to make blocks to weight things down with?

[Snadger]

How big are the stones?

I chuck all my stones at an area of membrane by a bed that isn't otherwise covered. Holds it down but allows water to drain. Or mix with sand/cement to make blocks to weight things down with?

Stones range in size but most are about half the size of a tennis/cricket ball. This is my first growing season on the plot and if possible I don't want to make any paths permanent yet until I get it settled in my mind where I want them.
I have some membrane so I could make temporary paths and throw the stones onto those I suppose where they could be moved if I change my mind.

[Snadger]

I took my saw, a hammer some thin boarding and nails to the plot this morning. I made my funnel for the top of the IBC and covered it with self stick roofing felt as outlined in the "Cunning plan" thread.








A little bit of a botch up with the frame but its a case of using what you have to give the funnel effect and it didn't cost me nowt, which is the main thing.

I then planted out 40 red torpedo onions I had raised in modules.

After a bit of hoeing of weeds I also decided to plant out four courgette plants. I created four small mounds and planted the courgettes in the top of them.

One worrysome event was when I harvested a spring cabbage. The plants have grown really well but when I harvested this one it had the tell tale signs of clubroot. Whether this is indigenous in the plot or whether I imported it in with the plants I bought at the local market I have no idea. I went against my normal practice of growing my own brassicas from seed.
I put the cabbage root in a bag and took it home to be added to the bin in the hope this was just a rogue plant. The rest of the spring cabbage I have used up until now have had healthy root systems, and even this plant didn't seem to be affected even with swollen roots.

With all my home grown brassicas ready to plant out this will be a worry in the back of my mind.

[Snadger]

I planted out four PSB from a bunch of brassicas I had sown in a seed bed. I put them about 2 foot apart with pipes around them to try and deter any pigeons. I know how big they grow and how long they are in the ground and the probability I will need to net them so they are in a short row of there own.
Dwarf French beans sown in modules seem to be taking a while to germinate so I am wondering if seed was dodgy. I have some more seeds I may have to resort to.

Planted up four Yacon into pots to bring them on a bit.

Watered all greenhouse plants and courgettes which I didn't water when I put them out yesterday.