Weather - 4 Year Cycle (I blame the Olympics!) & an Update

I love looking back over people's blogs, specially new ones that I've found, reading what they've been up to and looking at how they've done, or haven't done.  Anyhow, I found this blog and I was reading it, but I had to double check the date, were we in 2012?  No it was actually in 2008 but the weather was very typical of how it has been this season, e.g. April - cold start, warming up towards the end of the month.  May - Lovely warm start with highs of 22.5 degrees Celsius, but wait....it ended with days of rain and temperatures dropping to around 13 degrees... is this all sounding familiar?  June - again typically colder than average temperatures and the result for that year was a cold summer, with temperatures only reaching late teens, not a very good year for growing by all accounts. So, is this what we have to look forward to; a cold summer?  Oh and by the way, they had an Olympics that year too... so I'm blaming it on the Olympics, roll on another 4 years, LOL.

Back to the present day then, I have put on another four roof panels on the bottle house, it is starting to come together.  I'm going to have to sort out some kind of support for the middle supports of the roof.  With the weight of the panels on the back side it is pulling on the middle supports and tilting to one side.  When I have put up the two panels on the front facing side, I have had to put these in the middle positions with a hope to counteract the weight on the supports, once I have the final two in position I will assess it more, but I think to be on the safe side I'll have to sort something out, else I may come down one day and the roof will be in next doors allotment, I don't think they'll be too pleased about that.  Here is a quick picture of how it is coming on.

Six Roof Panels Attached

I've put up my bean supports, and direct planted some French Beans and some Runner Beans.  I have done this down one side of each set of supports, I have also sowed (have I spelt that right?) some Runner Beans in pots in the greenhouse, I will plant out these along the other side of the structure.  Hopefully this will give me differing cropping times, we'll see.  Additionally,  I sowed some Borlotti (French) Beans in the greenhouse, these are to go on the other side of the direct planted ones, these will be left on the plant for picking at the end of the season and drying for stews etc in the winter.  When I pull up my Garlic and Shallots towards the end of the month, I will plant another crop of French Beans, dwarf varieties in the bed which they vacate.  I may even try some in the little polytunnel I have (this isn't ready yet, area still to be dug over and cover put on).

Bean Frames

I've direct sowed some more parsnips.  My first batch which I pre-chitted at home and planted into peat pots were quite successful and these have been planted out and looking quite nice.  Thinking it was going well I tried to do the same again, but only about two seeds germinated, so I tried again, this time none of the seeds germinated.  I've given it one more chance using some free seeds which I got with a magazine only a couple of weeks ago, so the seeds would be viable you'd think.  I've put two/three seeds per station and will thin (hopefully) to one per station if and when they germinate.  I'm not sure with parsnip seeds, they say you have to use fresh each year, but I got the seeds last year but hadn't opened them, they had a sow  by date of 2013 so I thought they'd be OK, but apparently not.  I had hoped to plant out my brassica plants, but the rain came and boy did it come.  I'd dodged the rain all day yesterday and again this morning, but when I returned after some lunch the rain gods were not playing... 

TWO Posts and My Shed!

Well the holiday weekend was mixed weather wise, there was sun, rain and on occasion hail! I bought the fence posts on Thursday evening, 4 @ 3”x3” x 8ft and 2 @ 4”x4” x 8ft. The wood man asked what I was doing with them as he was loading them into my car for me, his face said it all when I tried to explain, probably thought I was another eco-warrior, environmentally friendly loony.

Friday/Saturday I managed to plant up all my 1st earlies - Pentland Javelin into patio potato tubs, the 1st earlies - Rocket which I’ve had stood in the greenhouse over the last couple of weeks are coming along very nicely. I’m hoping a couple of nice days over this coming weekend will allow me to get the 2nd earlies in the ground at the allotment, a few will have to go in the remaining tubs, this will be a good test on whether soil or tubs are better for 2nd’s. I’ve put in some parsnips and radishes in one of the back yard beds. Carrots are coming through nicely. Plenty of tomatoes, kohl rabi, cauliflower, and lettuce seedlings are geminating. Cabbages and peppers are just beginning to peek through. I’ve been given a load of strawberry plants so these will be planted up in the fruit area ASAP.

On Sunday I drove to the allotment, Caleb in tow. I’d asked him to give me a hand building the bottle house, “I like building things” he says, good I thought I’m going to need your help. First job was to cut down some growth from the bushes hanging over from the neighbouring plot, and clear away some of the leaves and overgrown grass from the ground. Caleb watched. Then I started to measure, AGAIN, just to be safe, no point in getting it wrong and being unhappy once the posts have gone in. Again, Caleb watched. When I started to measure out I changed my mind where the house was going to be sited AGAIN. I wasn’t happy with the amount of growth (from next plots bushes) at one end so now its going to run 10ft flower bed, 10ft fruit (raspberry & strawberry) bed, then the bottle house (16ft), then another 10ft fruit bed and then what’s left (approx 12ft I think) I’ll decide what to do with later, possibly plant some fruit trees (apple, plum or pear). I also changed my mind on its dimensions, its now going to be 5ft wide instead of 4ft; I don’t do things by half!

I started to dig my first hole, Caleb watched, I turned my back for one minute, Caleb had gone, I found him chatting to Sid who has the plot opposite mine “he’s ok with me” Sid said, so back to the digging, ALONE. Next thing I know Brian (from further down the lane) had come over to have a chat with Sid and so Caleb then decided he wanted to go to see Brian’s hens and ducks, so that was it Caleb was off. So back to the digging of holes, ALONE, I sawed the bottom off the posts, making sure they stood in the holes straight and were both at a level height, all done and two posts in the ground, nice and secure. What a happy chappie I was with myself. I went back to check on them last night and to my amazement they were still standing, I must have done something right! I’m hoping to get another post in tomorrow night, and maybe the rest all in by Sunday, then I can start to work on the frames and creating the sides (this is where the bottles come into play).

Yesterday I received a phone call from the DIY store saying that they had mistakenly sold my shed and that the only one they had left was the store display model, so with some haggling (another 15% off the price), and them agreeing to dismantle it for me, I’m off to collect the shed for the chicken coop on Friday night. More building, ALONE no doubt!

Rain Rain Go Away

....come back again when i'm on holiday in August so that i need not worry if my veggies are getting watered whilst i'm away, lol. Seriously though, when will this rain ease, my plot was flooded again after the heavy rain that came toward the back end of last week, luckly though it's only seems to be flooding in one area, though this will cause a problem shortly as this is where the bottle house and fruit area will be. It's not stopped raining for long either yesterday or today and it’s been really heavy at times, so probably more flooding at the allotment. Got a few bits done over the weekend, planted up the rest of the Rocket potatoes, I’ll be doing the Pentland Javelin during this week as and when. There’s no more space for them in the mini greenhouse so these will have to fair the weather. I started to weed the ‘Root’ patch; I’ll be planting some Sweetcorn - Mini Pop in the little area I got done. Try and get some more of that weeded over the weekend. My Comfrey plant is starting to grow again, the first cut will go in with the potatoes, and then I’ll start to make some Comfrey tea for the Tomatoes and Potatoes for when they need a feed later.

I’ve sown some more Leeks (Autumn Giant and Lyon), Cauliflower (AYR), Kohl Rabi, and various Lettuces. The carrots are finally starting to show under the little grow house on the 4ft x 4ft bed in the back yard. The parsnip seeds are now sprouting shoots; does this mean I can just plant them in the soil now?

I cleared away some of the area where the chicken coop and wildlife garden is going to go. I had some roof slates which I was going to use on Samson’s kennel but as I didn’t have enough I felted the roof, but lucky for me, when you lay them all together they measure 3ft x 4ft, just the right size of the chicken house (shed), so these are going to be a base for the shed to sit on, rather than it standing straight on top of the soil.

I’ve re-allocated the space down the side of the plot where the bottle house and fruit and flower beds are going to be. Hopefully if the weather gets better over the weekend I’ll be able to begin the digging for putting in the fencing posts which will be the start of the frame for the bottle house. I’m not sure if I’ll cement these posts in or just find some other way of securing them, just in case I decide to move the bottle house in the future.

We (Caleb & me) popped to Pets at Home over the weekend, and to my joy I discovered that they sell chicken bits n pieces. This will be a great benefit for us, somewhere local I’ll be able to buy food from etc. So anyway in anticipation of the little feathered friends joining us sometime soon, we bought a chicken feeder and water supply. I’m dead chuffed with them; it’s great what little things make us happy.

Oh yes, I’ve received a kind donation from a friend at work (well her father to be precise) two rhubarb plants, so I’ll have to decide where they will live. Probably somewhere within the fruit bits I think. Somebody told me that rhubarb leaves make a good fertilizer, does anybody know if this is true?

How Could I Forget - My Chickens!

Gosh, I don’t know how I’ve done it, but yesterday I forgot to mention the most important happening of the weekend - I’ve ordered 4 chickens. When I say I’ve ordered them, I’ve put in a request to a friend who has a small holding (1 acre) to rear me some chicks, she will look after them until they are at ‘point of lay’, which is roughly about 18 - 20 weeks old, and at which point I’ll have returned from my holiday and it’ll be all systems go, eggtastic!

Quick update on the sowing - I’ve started to pre-chit some parsnips, done the old wet paper towel trick; we’ll see how they get on. I also sowed 3 of each of the tomato varieties: Gardener Pearl, Roma, Red Cherry and an Italian big beefy one I can’t for the life of me think what it’s called now, I’ve put them in little peat pots so I don’t need to prick them out and pot on, I’ll just pop the peat pot into the next size up which will probably be a 3” pot and carry on from there. Did this with a couple of plants last year and it seemed to work out ok, so I’ll give it another go.

Had another look at my potato plans last night also, I was going to put the 2nd earlies into tubs as I’m doing with the 1st earlies, but again the seed potatoes seem to be multiplying, I don’t know where they are all coming from, but they will go in the ground as I haven’t enough of the potato tubs.

Another Productive Weekend!

Yet another weekend of nice weather so plenty of progress made. On Friday night I popped to our local B&Q as they had 20% discount on all purchases over £50. I’d been there the previous weekend and had seen a little shed (4ft x 3 ft) priced at £65. Now having decided we were going to get some hens and had found some details on how to build the henservatory, I thought this little shed would make a good house for them. They could occupy the bottom and if I put up some shelves, this could be storage area for their feed and other bits. So I’ve bought one, sale price of £52, however I’ve had to leave it at the store until I can get some kind volunteer with a small van to pick it up for me. I know just the man but he’s on holiday at the moment. I’ve managed to source (or should I say recycle) three 3x3 fence posts 7ft long and a couple of 10ft lengths of 2x3 which will help create the frame of the henservatory.

On Saturday I planted a further 4 (rocket) seed potatoes in a potato tub. I’ll put Pentland Javlin into tubs over the next couple of weeks so that I get a gradual harvest. I sprinkled some bone meal over the 7ft x 4ft raised bed in the back yard ready for when I plant some parsnips in there. I’ve decided to plant carrots and parsnips at home in the back yard as a backup as the soil at the plot isn’t very good yet (improvements are being made) and I thought they would grow better in some compost where they won’t be hindered by stones etc. I’ll be pre-chitin some parsnip seeds tonight, going to try the damp paper towel trick.

It was then off to the allotment for me and Samson. When I arrived, fencing around the 4 little plots which have been created over the last year had been erected. It really makes our little bit look very smart now. I decided this weekend would be dedicated to creating the onion bed as the sets need to be planted mid-March to mid-April, so I got down to digging. The bed will be 7ft x 4ft. Lots of digging and plenty of weed and grass extraction later (over the course of Saturday and Sunday) the patch of ground was cleared, a raised bed made and then the soil was treated with some much rotted garden compost. This coming weekend I’ll scatter some chicken manure pellets to give the ground some oomph and then I’ll be looking to plant out the onion sets - Santero (the first onion set with resistance to downy mildew) and Red Barron. I’m also trying to grow Bedfordshire Champion from seed, but these sets are my back up.
Tonight I’m going to sow a couple more tomato plants, some tunip and possible a few other choices, keep you informed.

Plans for the Weekend

I’ve got plans galore that I want to get done over the weekend, how many will come to fruition only the man in the sky knows, him and his little weather pixie anyway, but nonetheless this is what is on the agenda:
· Get the 2nd earlies chitted (this should be easy, not weather reliant).
· Sow some leeks, tomato (in heated propagator), melon, peas, lettuce, chillies (again not weather reliant)
· Cover small bed (4ft x 4ft) in back yard with fleece (well old net curtains) so soil starts to warm up for carrots/parsnips to be sown in a couple of weeks.
· Get electric lead for propagator (must do this before item 2)
· Tidy up back yard so that raised beds and greenhouse (small plastic ones) can be put into place ready for hardening off and more planting.
· Buy some garden canes and collect plastic bottles from Mrs ‘C’ (she is saving 2 litre bottles for me for my bottle house).
· Get down to the allotment, see what can be dug, and dig, dig, dig. If not possible to dig, i.e. ground frozen and waterlogged, and then it will be build, build build.
· Wash out pots and seed trays.
· Oh yeah, last but not least eat and sleep (again not weather reliant, lol)

A couple of dates for your diaries, if you don’t already know about them. Gardener’s world is back on 5th March BBC2 at 8pm and also Alys Fowler will be presenting The Edible Garden, this is due to start on Tuesday 16th March BBC2 at 8pm.