TPD's allotment thread

ThePrettyDamned

I just chuck compost on the soil and plant in now. Seems to work okay, purple sprouting broccoli is growing big! Carrots didn't go deep in the clay, as expected, but by next year the soil will have been improved by the compost and soil life so maybe more successful.

I've found the wooden sides hold woodlice, slugs etc and leafy things get damaged (although we've not had terrible problems). Beds without sides generally had less woodlice damage for sure, despite woodchip paths. 

benmurray85

Finally got some sort of strawberry defence in place. Not perfect but it’s certainly stopped the birds getting to them (for now!). Pretty impressive what you can achieve with some canes and a hot glue gun! 

BEFORE

AFTER

We also harvested and froze a tonne of spinach last week so I’m really chuffed with that! 

ThePrettyDamned

Looks great! We had a couple of lettuce out yesterday that were just starting to bolt. Should still be tasty, but maybe less so than 2 or 3 days ago.

Also had our first carrots and more beetroot. Turns out carrot growing is full of bullshit.

- you can't grow in freshly manure ground - well, I literally sowed these into composted manure. 

- you need light, sandy, infertile soil - we have very heavy clay, heavy enough that the carrots are a bit short (although they are a shorter variety of chatenay). They grew into the clay no problem, and only one or two forked because they hit a stone. 

- soil needs to be well dug over to ensure it's as light and airy as possibly - I just dumped composted manure on top of solid clay. 

I know some common advice is not myth, but I can't help but feel there is an old guard of gatekeepers who don't want anything to change.

roundthebend

We've just started our 3rd year on our tiny plot. We've got most things in very good shape having had to rebuild some of the raised beds that we inherited. We haven't done anything to improve the soil other than to remove weed membrane from underneath the beds to let roots go deeper. Our approach to growing is mostly about just chucking stuff in that we like and hoping for the best.

Here's something that we struggle with. We chucked some beetroot seeds in and have lovely neat rows growing that we can identify. We chucked some salad leaves (seeds) in and have fairly neat but slightly sporadic growth of edible looking stuff. We also chucked some stir fry leaves (seeds) in and some radishes, again in neat rows.....but all we seem to have growing there are small leafy things that all look the same, and look the same as other weeds growing across the whole allotment plot. Our conclusion is that those seeds haven't germinated and we just need to turn the weeds in and assume we've failed.

Similarly, I grew some butternut squash from recovered seeds. When they were looking healthy on the windowsill I transplanted them into a raised bed. Within a week they'd shrivelled up so we chucked some seed potatoes in those beds instead. Now we've got a lovely crop of potato plants, but I can see the squash have rejuvenated and might start to outgrow the potatoes in the next few weeks!

We're clearly amateurs who get some luck, but it's not a sustainable way to feed ourselves!

I think next year we'll try to be more scientific. This year we'll finish off rigging up a water collector and irrigation system, both for our main plot and the shared polytunnel we have. Then we'll fix some more beds, and build a compost bin system. I'm tempted to try and take on some neighbouring plots - the one we're on was divided into 4 and we've got a quarter, there are 1 or 2 others currently vacant and overgrowing.

benmurray85

As this got bumped! Quick update from us. 

We’ve had a full crop of beetroots and red onions although they were all super small. We bought both as starter plants and they were bundled into groups of 6ish. I’m wondering if we should have split them early on so we’re going to try that next year. 

Our carrots seemed to have stalled. 

We have tonnes of Chard that I need to pull this weekend. 

Plus we’ve had loads of fruit (mainly strawberries and raspberries, tomatoes are just starting now) which has been amazing. 

ThePrettyDamned

Ours is doing great! I'll get photos at the weekend.

Harvested loads of beetroot. More to come too! Tomatillos are very small, but I will try again next year. Tomatoes are doing well, fair amount of fruit growing. Pumpkins are sprawling and cabbages are cabbaging  

benmurray85

We went to collect some horse manure today, thought it was well rotted but it is instead very very fresh! Does anyone have any tips!

We have an old outside loo and an old paddling pool so I've just dumped it all in there and intending to leave it for 3-6 months to rot down. Is that literally all there is to it or do I need to do anything?

ThePrettyDamned

benmurray85 said:

We went to collect some horse manure today, thought it was well rotted but it is instead very very fresh! Does anyone have any tips!

We have an old outside loo and an old paddling pool so I've just dumped it all in there and intending to leave it for 3-6 months to rot down. Is that literally all there is to it or do I need to do anything?

That'll do it. I will be getting some soon, and just add to compost heap. It's not much different to grass clippings in that way! 

benmurray85

Thanks mate, it also seems to be about 60-70% straw. Will it still rot down the same?

ThePrettyDamned

benmurray85 said:

Thanks mate, it also seems to be about 60-70% straw. Will it still rot down the same?

Yup, that's probably bedding and stuff. Everything organic rots down - just be aware of whether pesticides were used on the fields the horses fed on. Aminopyralids are persistent even after being digested I think. 

benmurray85

ThePrettyDamned said:

benmurray85 said:

Thanks mate, it also seems to be about 60-70% straw. Will it still rot down the same?

Yup, that's probably bedding and stuff. Everything organic rots down - just be aware of whether pesticides were used on the fields the horses fed on. Aminopyralids are persistent even after being digested I think. 

Thank you. We asked regards the pesticides etc and are assured its about as natural as it gets

ThePrettyDamned

It's been a while!

I have some epic updates. 

I'm continuing to add to our compost heap, and take cuttings from mum and dad's house to increase the amount I can make. It's not loads, but home made compost is so much better than store bought - I put some on my herb bed last year, and while the compost has all but gone, the soil is more crumbly and free draining, and the thyme, garlic chives, bronze fennel and oregano are extremely happy despite being in very heavy clay soil!

The rosemary is a bit less happy, but after removing some diseased branches it does seem to be bouncing back a bit... 

I had an email the other week from the committee - and I got lucky in the draw and have a second allotment, right next to the first! Bear in mind each is a quarter size of a traditional allotment, it's not unmanageable. So I've started work on that. I'm a very busy person, so rather than having another similar plot full of annual veg, I've decided to make it primarily focused on perennials. As such, I've planted 12 columnar fruit trees, including apples, plums, pears, cherries and even a peach, two blackcurrant bushes, have 10 raspberry canes on the way (both autumn fruiting for ease of care and a big glut!), planted a few half price rhubarb crowns that looked dead but probably are not, and dug over the first short row of asparagus. 

The trees, I was advised, don't go into super rich soil. I was advised to plant them straight into the clay, water well and mulch rather than incorporate lots of compost - apparently they don't like that? So I'm mulching today on lunch break and tomorrow with some peat free compost. 

Remaining space will be a couple of rows of annual veg and flowers and some globe artichokes I've grown from seed. Love those things, decoratively and as a delicacy. The trees do seem to be coming to life, and I hope the compost mulch helps keep them happy. 

On the first plot, first rows of beetroot, cabbage, lettuce and kale are in a couple of weeks ago, all under fleece. I've sown another tray of radish, beet, cabbage, lettuce and nasturtium for the next planting in May. I've also got some tomatoes on the go, and sowed crown prince squash and yellow courgettes the other day in the propogator, again, expecting them to go out mid May. 

Peppers are looking incredible! They're growing well, and I'm putting them on the balcony every day to toughen them up - they should be going in the ground early May hopefully, weather depending, and probably fleeced over for an extra degree or two of warmth overnight. 

Last year's rhubarb crown is being harvested tomorrow to make a delicious crumble. Yummy. 

On the flower front, I have a lot of dahlia tubers on the balcony in small pots. These are just starting to sprout, and I hope to get them into the plots in May. I also have some dahlias, dwarf stocks, red (!) rudbeckia and marigolds potted up yesterday from seed, also destined to go in the corners of beds to bring in the beneficial bugs. The plot is already full of ladybirds, which is a good sign, but flea beetle remains a pest for brassicas and they cannot be sown direct. 

Happy days! Photos to follow later today if there is interest. 

Roland

ThePrettyDamned said:   Photos to follow later today if there is interest. 

Yes

Nitefly

Quite the empire-builder, TPD!  Today the allotment, tomorrow...?

It all sounds brilliant.

ThePrettyDamned

As promised, a few snaps of plants at the flat. I'll get to the plot later

Peppers (mostly sweet, some mild and medium heat). These are doing well, all from seed. 

Spare peppers, but mostly rudbeckia cherry brandy, mixed dwarf stocks, basil seedlings:
 
A few basil cuttings but the rest is all flowers including a few marigolds, a few cosmos, lots of dwarf dahlias and more rudbeckia. There are also a couple of the globe artichokes:

 
Dahlias from tubers. Never done this before. Slow to start, but they're waking up! Also one peony in the corner.
 
Tomato seedlings batch 1, some tomatillo (they always start leggy for some reason!) and a couple more globe artichokes:
 
Lastly, my bonsai chilli is sort-of working. It's bigger than I'd like, and needs more nutrients really. Not happy with the amount of care it needs, so it'll be composted at the end of summer I think! 
 

I have asparagus seeds in the propagator with squash and more toms, but they're very slow to germinate - 3-5 weeks! 

ThePrettyDamned

Moar!

 
Asparagus row at the front. Hoping it spreads back when the onions come out. Gave it a bit of extra compost today. 


My heroic herb bed. Garlic chives, rosemary, bronze fennel, thymes and oregano for perennial interest and colour. 

 
Slightly sadder here due to digging. Added a tiny bit of compost (about half a bag across that huge bed on the left!) today just to cover up some weeds from the home made compost that went on the other month. Onions looking alright, but were plagued by onion root miner and leaf miner. Lavender is alive at the front, as is the geum and something else in the middle... 

And the new plot. Had it three weeks now - so very early days. Asparagus crowns at the front, sown more seed to get more. Blackcurrant and fruiting trees along planned pathway. 

 

ThePrettyDamned

I am gradually raking in some of the wood chip on the paths to extend the beds somewhat, but now I have a second plot, that won't be a priority as much as controlling the couch grass, thistles and dandelions we have (which are the main, problematic, weeds we face). I'll do the same thing though - strim it as short as possible, lay down large sheets of cardboard and mulch with woodchip. This is not because I think it's inherently better that other methods, or even a grass path, but because we're on incredibly heavy clay with rubble. When it rains, shoes get insanely muddy! The wood chip does a good job of keeping boots cleaner, keeping weeds down and theoretically feeds fungal life and breaks down into the soil over time. 

ESBlonde

ThePrettyDamned said:

I am gradually raking in some of the wood chip on the paths to extend the beds somewhat, but now I have a second plot, that won't be a priority as much as controlling the couch grass, thistles and dandelions we have (which are the main, problematic, weeds we face). I'll do the same thing though - strim it as short as possible, lay down large sheets of cardboard and mulch with woodchip. This is not because I think it's inherently better that other methods, or even a grass path, but because we're on incredibly heavy clay with rubble. When it rains, shoes get insanely muddy! The wood chip does a good job of keeping boots cleaner, keeping weeds down and theoretically feeds fungal life and breaks down into the soil over time. 

Beware with wood chip, it will absorb nitrogen from the soil to aid it decomposition so it is recommended to sit it on the surface but not mix or incorporate it into the soil. Once it’s started to break down somewhat (say 9 months or more) it is less a sponge to your precious nitrogen and the carbon will slowly breakdown and release the N back to the soil. For our paths we lay a sheet of brown corrugated cardboard on the path then add a layer of chip on top, it makes nice weed free paths and a year later the path soil is rich and feeding plant roots coming under from the beds either side.

ThePrettyDamned

ESBlonde said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

I am gradually raking in some of the wood chip on the paths to extend the beds somewhat, but now I have a second plot, that won't be a priority as much as controlling the couch grass, thistles and dandelions we have (which are the main, problematic, weeds we face). I'll do the same thing though - strim it as short as possible, lay down large sheets of cardboard and mulch with woodchip. This is not because I think it's inherently better that other methods, or even a grass path, but because we're on incredibly heavy clay with rubble. When it rains, shoes get insanely muddy! The wood chip does a good job of keeping boots cleaner, keeping weeds down and theoretically feeds fungal life and breaks down into the soil over time. 

Beware with wood chip, it will absorb nitrogen from the soil to aid it decomposition so it is recommended to sit it on the surface but not mix or incorporate it into the soil. Once it’s started to break down somewhat (say 9 months or more) it is less a sponge to your precious nitrogen and the carbon will slowly breakdown and release the N back to the soil. For our paths we lay a sheet of brown corrugated cardboard on the path then add a layer of chip on top, it makes nice weed free paths and a year later the path soil is rich and feeding plant roots coming under from the beds either side.

Excellent - that's exactly what we do. Does a decent job controlling couch grass, nice looking and improves soil. I keep it off the beds for the nitrogen reason you give

Edit:the birds chuck it in the beds, mind! 

ThePrettyDamned

More efforts today - got a dwarf forsythia in, because I have a rather emotional attachment to that mostly not very pretty shrub... also made a couple of short rows intended for strawberry or maybe a few globe artichokes, a larger bed intended for... Probably globe artichoke? Not sure! And dug a trench with some compost to prepare for some raspberry canes. I reckon it's long enough for 5 of them, I have 10 en route. So... I'll do 5 in that, and the other 5 I'm going to not dig - just cardboard, use a trowel to make small holes and compost mulch on top. Hopefully it works, because it saves me digging more super heavy clay!

On the other plot, I planted a surround of garlic cloves in the bed that will hold our sweetcorn (not yet sown). Late for garlic? Nah. I have done this before - you don't get a bulb of garlic from late plantings, you get something much cooler - huge bloody shallots, but garlic! They're marketed as a very expensive thing, but really it's just late planting of garlic. 

I already have loads planted in autumn and they're going bananas now, so I will have plenty of cloves. Now I wanna see if I can get a handful of huge ones. 

Other than that, I'm hoping to get my dwarf dahlias out soon, probably around the trees, and bigger dahlias from tubers on the border somewhere.