Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

It's just phenomenal what you've achieved. And that spinach just blows me away!

The spinach is awesome - I picked a leaf the other day that was nearly the size of a piece of A4 paper. The stems are just starting to lengthen a bit and the leaves are getting a little more stringy now, but I have never seen anything quite like it.

[Penellype]

Busy yesterday so not a lot of time. I went down first thing to collect up the rain water and harvest some lettuce and spinach from the hotbed. Managed to get back down in the evening to water and dug a little more horsetail out of the tunnel.

Much more time today. I went down in the morning and dug a bit more horsetail, then re-dug the shed end half of the east side of the tunnel as a few horsetail shoots were showing there. Then I brought the car down and took 5 trugs of horsetail roots to the tip. I dropped off the trugs on the way home and picked up a lettuce for lunch.

In the afternoon I went back and pulled the horsetail out of the leek, pea and bean beds. I then planted out the 2nd lot of Douce Provence peas in the pea bed and the Sugar Magnolia peas in the bean bed. Sugar Magnolia is supposed to grow very tall, so it goes with the beans in the bed nearest the road (north end). I took some more huge spinach leaves home for tea.

The slugs have eaten all the carrot seedlings in the raised bed again. I was thinking about this and decided to try to make a mini raised bed in the tunnel on the bit I re-dug this morning, using the pieces of plastic with copper tape on, stuck together into a rectangle with greenhouse glass repair tape. I did this after I'd fed the horses and I'll sow some carrots in there tomorrow. If these get eaten by slugs I will have to give up with carrots in the ground.

Finally I watered everything - the water levels are going down again but we might get some rain tonight.

[Penellype]

Another mostly horsetail day today. I spent about an hour re-digging half of the shed end of the tunnel to get rid of germinating weeds and remove any horsetail roots I could find. I also sowed some carrots (Flyaway) in the little bed I made yesterday. The parsnips I sowed with the first lot of carrots are finally germinating - it will be interesting to see if they fare better than the carrots did in the same bed.

Later I went back to water and pulled out all the horsetail I could find from the onion and cauliflower beds. I was going to cut the grass today, but after mucking out, doing my friend's garden and all that digging I simply hadn't the energy. I chopped up a bit of the pile of leylandii instead.

Took home another bag of spinach for tea.

[Penellype]

I'm running out of superlatives for the hotbed, so I'll just post a picture of what I've brought home for lunch



Beetroot, variety Boldor.

[Penellype]

Got plenty done today, starting with collecting the rain water (we had about 10mm over night) and 2 jars of slugs and snails for the chickens.

Finished off digging the shed end half of the tunnel, which should now have a good deal less horsetail in it (although I am bound to have missed some). Took home some lettuces for lunch as well as the beetroot.

Went back early in the afternoon and moved the blackcurrant bush into the tunnel to protect it from sawfly and later from birds. I then set about re-digging the bed next to the rhubarb as there were bits of horsetail popping up in various places. I did about half of this before I got too hot and tired, so I went home for a bit.

Did another session in the early evening, starting with cutting the grass (lost another 2 nuts off the lawnmower, despite tightening them as hard as I could). The grass is now full of horsetail, so I picked out as much as I could find before putting it in the compost bin. At least there shouldn't be any roots in there, but I'm not sure if it will regrow from the leaves.

I then tried to finish off the bed next to the rhubarb, but the low sun made it really hard to see the roots in amongst the soil and I decided to give up for the day. Took some rhubarb home for tea.

[Penellype]

Another mostly horsetail day today, although I did plant out the peas (Hurst Greenshaft this time). I now have 1 row of Meteor, 2 of Douce Provence, 1 of Hurst Greenshaft and 1 of Sugar Magnoila (that's 5m of peas!) plus another 3.5m at home (Meteor and Hurst Greenshaft). I like peas, so I still have Terrain and Geisha to sow - these are late varieties to follow on after the Meteor.

Otherwise, I pulled horsetail out of the pea, carrot and leek beds and some of it out of the hotbed (its hard to see in there under all the lettuce and spinach). I also went round and pulled it out of all the places where it was coming through the weed matting on the paths and as much as I could find in amongst the strawberries. No doubt it will be back by tomorrow.

There was a little coming up in the raspberry bed, but this was encroaching from the path at the tunnel side. I've been thinking that the next area to tackle is that path as it runs along next to where I have been digging inside the tunnel, so its a logical next step. I started at the raspberry end and managed to dig about 3ft of path in 2 sessions. This has been well trampled all winter and is hard work to dig. It is full of horsetail and also couch grass, and the roots have gone through the bottom of the tunnel netting where it has been buried, so it is a slow job. I was going to have a grass path here but I don't think this will work very well, and mowing next to the tunnel net (which is weighted down with bricks in places) is not easy, so I will probably eventually put weed matting down here. For now the priority is to get rid of the grass and horsetail as fast as is sensibly possible.

[Penellype]

A bit more digging of horsetail today, but it was really a bit hot for much of that. Instead I went round the edges of the plot pulling out horsetail from under the leylandii hedge and cutting it down from the edge of the grass path along next door's plot as it was getting quite thick there. I raked up the clippings with the digging fork and put them in the trug to go to the tip.

Then I started on the hawthorn hedge and got about half way along it, pulling out horsetail and some bindweed that was starting to grow, and cutting off the long bits of grass from in amongst the bluebells. I also cut back some brambles and a patch of nettles, and pulled out horsetail from amongst the geraniums. Plenty more of this sort of thing to do.

The parsnips have germinated and so far have survived the slugs. Fingers crossed they will actually get a chance to grow as I am not growing any at home this year.

The spinach in the hotbed is starting to bolt quite quickly now. I brought more home for tea and the freezer, and I think tomorrow I will try to make some soup.

I also went to the shops and got a lawn rake as the grass by the leylandii hedge has quite a few woody leylandii clippings in it and they jam the mower, so it could do with a good rake. I also bought a groundsheet in anticipation of harvesting potatoes

[Penellype]

Somewhat chilly today but at least it meant I didn't get too hot digging. I made good progress with digging the path between the raised beds and the tunnel and I will soon need to go to the tip to empty my trugs again.

The other job that needs doing is weeding the strawberries. I pulled out the horsetail here yesterday and had a bit of a go at weeding them today, but it is hard going as there are loads of tiny weeds all round the strawberry plants:



This is another of those jobs that never seems to stay done for more than 5 minutes. I'm debating trying to mulch the plants with something to keep the weeds down, although it won't stop the horsetail and I am worried about providing shelter for slugs.

Its easy to get frustrated when I weed the raised beds and then find more horsetail appears over night - the reason I put the raised beds and weed matting down was to prevent me from being overwhelmed by the weeds. The next door plot holder took a different route - he applied weedkiller to the half of his allotment nearest the leylandii hedge. The whole lot went brown, but a couple of months later, this is what it looks like:



All of that green is horsetail. So when I get frustrated I look at that and tell myself that is what mine would look like if I hadn't covered most of it up. I would certainly feel very overwhelmed by a whole plot that looked like that!

[bikermike]

gosh! can I borrow that photo for inspiration too?

it's awful stuff, but I can say that after three years, it's down to an annoyance.
(in the first year I sheeted over a big area with plastic. it blew off and I had a forest of yellow marestail. that was qyite dispiriting... but the same area is now fine)

[Penellype]

gosh! can I borrow that photo for inspiration too?

it's awful stuff, but I can say that after three years, it's down to an annoyance.
(in the first year I sheeted over a big area with plastic. it blew off and I had a forest of yellow marestail. that was qyite dispiriting... but the same area is now fine)

You are welcome to look at the photo whenever you like!

[Penellype]

After a blank day yesterday I was keen to get some horsetail roots dug out before it got too hot. I walked down to the plot at about 8am and spent about a couple of hours digging before I got too tired to do any more. I went home for a coffee then took the 4 full trugs of horsetail to the tip.

After lunch the sun went in for a bit and I decided to go back and do some more. I managed another hour or so, which got the path alongside the tunnel dug to about half way, by which time I had had enough.

I then cut a carrier bag full of bolting spinach and took it home to make soup. This has not made a huge impression on the amount of spinach still at the allotment (and I have loads at home too!).

The next door plot holder was there this afternoon, and says he has ordered a powerful weedkiller that kills horsetail including the roots. He is going to spray the green half of his plot with it when it arrives. I don't like weedkiller, but I also don't like falling out with people I hardly know, so I didn't mention that I don't use chemicals. Its his plot and I suppose he is free to do what he wants with it. It will be interesting to see if it works, but I will be sticking with the digging. He was talking about spraying the bottoms of the hedges as well, and I did advise him to be careful. I've no idea what this stuff is, but if its that powerful he could well kill the hedges too.

[Penellype]

This weekend I decided that Saturday would be a digging day and today I would get some other jobs done.

Saturday was sunny, but the sun was hazy so it was not too hot. There was some horsetail growing back in the bed next to the rhubarb, so I dug that over first, removing quite a lot of horsetail roots, then covered it with a piece of fleece as the cat has been using it as a toilet. I then dug the bit of path between that bed and the tunnel, which had not been dug previously, removing a delightful mixture of horsetail, couch grass, bindweed and geranium.

Today I started with pulling horsetail out of the raised beds, but it was very sunny and far too hot, so I spent a good hour tidying the shed, folding and putting away the bubble wrap and cloche covers and then raking up the bits of leylandii near the bottom hedge, which was also in the shade. Having done this I trimmed the long grass there.

This evening I went back to do the watering and planted out the 2 kohlrabi plants in the tunnel (with copper rings to keep the slugs off), then set about weeding the strawberries - this is another job that has got stopped several times due to it being in the sunny part of the plot. These were thick with little weeds, mostly willowherb and horsetail. I managed to remove a fair amount of them and scratched at the soil surface with a hand fork to disturb the ones I'd missed. No doubt it will all grow back very quickly.

[Penellype]

Monday was very hot and sunny, and not at all conducive to digging. I spent some time pulling horsetail out of the roadside hedge, where it had grown to about a foot high. As the hedge is a mixture of hawthorn and blackthorn, this wasn't a particularly pleasant job! I also tidied up some of the grass edges that the mower doesn't get to, but I'd soon had enough.

Yesterday morning was cooler and I spent about 2 hours digging over part of the road end of the tunnel for the 2nd time and removing all the horsetail I could find. I also cut down 2 large geranium plants that were in the tunnel harbouring slugs, snails and horsetail. While I was doing this I noticed some snails inside the rolled up piece of weed matting. I moved the edge to get the snails out and found a small brown toad. I left him where he was for now - he is welcome to eat as many slugs as he can find.

I was going to go back in the afternoon, but I thought I'd better go to Wyevale and get some sweet potatoes and tomato Megabyte, as I had some vouchers that expired yesterday. Irritatingly they didn't have either (I got both there last year), so that was rather a waste of time.

This morning was cloudy so I went down as early as I could and did some more digging in the tunnel, including some of the part that has not been dug before. This leaves 2 square areas in the corners at the shed end, which are currently not accessible because of the bins of water, and the bit under the roll of matting that is housing Mr Toad, plus the roots of the geraniums. There is also about 1/3 of the road half that needs re-digging, which shouldn't take too long. I may or may not get a chance to do more this afternoon. I've also pulled some horsetail out of the parsnip, onion and pea beds this morning.

[geepee]

Busy,Busy, as always...!!
Do you Ever RELAX ..???

[Penellype]

Busy,Busy, as always...!!
Do you Ever RELAX ..???

Sometimes

Went back briefly yesterday to water and adjust the bean frame slightly (and pulled the horsetail out of that raised bed). I was going to pot up the pink blueberry into a 30 litre pot and had bought a 25 litre bag of ericaceous compost for the job. The plant is in a 3 litre pot. I was expecting a gap at the top of the bucket, but when I put the compost in, even after fluffing it up with a fork it was barely 3/4 full. I'm going to have to get some more before I plant the blueberry.