Category: Gardening & Allotment
Raspberry canes
I decided that I would plant some raspberry canes along the back of the plot this year as an encouragement for me to tackle and area I had been avoiding due to the nettles and bamboo roots growing there. With the nettles died down over winter and part of the area having been carpeted since last summer I found it easy going to start with, but when I hit the extensive root systems of the bamboo and other unknown weeds it all started to get a lot harder. You can see in the images some of the types of root I was tackling.
I had 11 canes to plant and at a spacing of 18″ between each that meant I was looking to clear about 16 feet of ground. Well after about 3 and a half hours work I had only managed to clear 12ft so managed to get 8 of the plants added. The plants come as stubby little sticks (scientific name) with bare roots and mine already showed signs of new shoots. The advice is usually to cut the canes down to a couple of inches above ground level as soon as they are planted to promote new shoots.
I bought 2 different varieties of raspberry, Glen Moy which is a summer variety and Autumn Bliss which, of course, is an autumn variety and should mean a good few months of harvesting. Later on in the year I will need to install some supports and wires to tie the canes in to but that is a job for another day.
Before leaving I covered some of the area that I have not yet had a chance to clear with carpet to kill off the vegetation and make digging over easier in a few months. It is important that natural fibre carpets with hessian backing are used and not the synthetic foam backed stuff. Having a carpet fitter as a neighbour has advantages.
Just before leaving the allotment I noticed a few parsnips poking out of the ground that I had missed. They were a little bit ropey but will be good for a soup or something.
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- Before I started
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- An example of the thick roots that needed to be removed
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- At the end of 3.5 hours. Still more to do but 8 canes in
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- Carpet covering unused area
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- A little bonus!
Preparing for a new growing season
It’s that time of year when I need to start preparing things for the new growing season. It was going to be a few hours down on the allotment planting raspberry canes but the skies looked ominous and there was rain starting to fall. So I decided instead to stay home and get the greenhouse tidied and cleared ready to receive seedlings.
It is not a proper greenhouse, just one of those walk-in plastic efforts, commonly known as a “blowaway” due to their propensity to take off in strong winds. I have the walk-in one and a smaller 3 tier one and am happy to say that neither have yet lived up to their reputation.
I am sure the more organised gardener would do this job at the end of a growing year rather than at the beginning of one but oh well, who said I was organised? Over the winter the walk-in has become a storage area for all sorts on stuff such as worktops for my allotment shed which needed moving out to a new home.
First thing to do was to sort through the remainder of last year’s onions, shallots and garlic, salvaging what was usable and bagging up for compost anything that was looking iffy of felt a bit soft. I also came across a couple of bags containing leftovers from last year’s potato crop. These had been busy chitting away and sending out roots all over the place which had matted and joined them all together. I also stumbled across the amusingly shaped potato that I posted a picture of last year and it had chitted nicely so I thing I will pop that in the ground again this year and see what becomes of it.
Lots of planning to do now, getting seedlings started and deciding what is to go where on the allotment. I have a lot of seeds lef over from last year as well as some new varieties that I want to try. I was really pleased with the few squash I grew last year so this year will definitely involve some experimentation with different varieties. Also tomatoes did really well so have bought a few more varieties to try.
Related articles
- Gardening Expert Views on To Chit or Not To Chit (bakestraw.co.uk)
- Vegetable Gardening 101: Part 1-Gather Your Supplies. (plowinginpearls.com)
- Chitting Seed Potatoes (thegardensmallholder.wordpress.com)
Today’s Haul
Got down the allotment today for the first in a few weeks and had a couple of nice surprises. Firstly there was not too much weed growth since my last visit and secondly I found a very unexpected thing in my apple tree. I noticed 4 or 5 apples in the tree but also a large yellow squash! I had planted some pattypan squash along the back fence behind the tree but this was not one of that variety. I suspect a stray seed from a different variety. The plant had worked its way up the tree where it had then flowered and fruited.
As you can see from the photos I also came home with a butternut squash, some parsnips (not ready until after first frost but I had to pull a couple up to see how they are going), apples, a giant beetroot and some corn. Unfortunately my neglect of the plot during the summer due to jury service and working away meant that the corn did not get enough water and many of the cobs are dried out. I think that could also be the cause of my sorry looking leeks.
So I now have left some parsnips, squash, leeks, broccoli and sprouts left growing. The plan now is to concentrate on getting the plot cleared and ready for spring. I am going to go down the raised beds route and I think it will be more practical and manageable for me and will also be trying the no dig method.
Back to the plot
Managed to get down to the allotment last week. I have only managed to get there a couple of times in the last month due to both work and the demoralisation I was feeling at the invasion of weeds that had occurred while I was on jury service.
Fran came with me and while I was digging up potatoes she made a start at clearing paths and also any veg that had gone past it’s best such as the swiss chard and lettuce that had gone to seed.
The potatoes I harvested were the two remaining varieties of the six I had planted, Desiree and Cara. I think the Cara could have stayed in a while more but we got some great sized potatoes.
Also harvested were the remainder of the beetroot and carrots.
I still have sweetcorn, broccoli, brussel sprouts, leeks and squash growing but will not be planting any more until I get some of the plot cleared and some raised beds installed.
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- “Cara” potatoes
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- “Desiree” potatoes
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- Sweetcorn
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- 3 varieties of beetroot
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- You just don’t get comedy veg from a supermarket!
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- Radishes
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- Broccoli and leeks
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- Purple sprouting broccoli. It is neither yet.
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- Fran clearing the paths
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- Clearing paths and beds
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- A baby squash
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- A slightly larger squash
Botato!!
No, it is not a mis-spelling, See the video at the end of the post,
A good haul from the allotment today, including onions, shallots, french beans and potatoes.
The potatoes today were of the Lady Christl and Kestrel varieties. Not so many of the former but very impressed with the numbers and sizes of the latter and will certainly grow them again next year.
Lady Christl on left and Kestrel on the right
One of the great things about growing your own vegetables is the lack of conformity in sizes and shapes. Supermarkets sell food that is not only bland in taste and full of pesticides, but also boringly standard in appearance. So what if a carrot is crooked of forked? Who cares if a potato looks like a backside?
Talking of which, this was one of the Kestrels I dug up today 
Bottoms up!
And in case you were wondering about the title of this post, watch this….
What we need is a few good taters.
Due to my jury service (still going on btw, start week 6 on Monday!!) I have not had a lot of chances to get down to the allotment.
I made it down there today and despite the inevitable invasion of all things weedy many of my vegetables were ready for harvesting, in particular potatoes. I planted 6 different varieties and two of them, Rocket and Pentland Javelin, were ready today. From 10 seed potatoes of each I ended up with a great harvest of various sized ‘taters. I don’t know the weight but I would guess about 30lbs.
I also pulled some red onions, garlic, 3 varieties of beetroot, 2 varieties of radish and some carrots today. It is times like this that all of the hard work pays off.
My Potato Project; The Importance of “Organic”
A great video by a young lady by the name of Elise showing how a simple experiment can show the extent that even foods we might consider natural are tampered with and polluted by agrochemicals.
Please spread this video and help it go viral.
Symptoms of Chlorpropham Exposure
- Skin, eye and respiratory irritations/mild irritant.
- Reported toxic manifestations have included CNS depression, seizures, extrapyramidal effects, neuropathy, and gastrointestinal effects of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Rain stopped play
If there is one thing you can rely on in England it is the weather; that is, you can rely on it to be unreliable!
There I was happily committing genocide on weedkind and trying to get various brassicas planted when the skies opened up and a downpour began.
Was I beaten? Did I run off home? No, I just fired up the mini BBQ in the shed and am now waiting for pork chops and mushrooms.
Oh in the pic you may also see some baby carrots and beetroot that I managed to pull up before the rain and I got some purple sprouting broccoli seedlings in so all is not lost.
Compost heap/rubbish tip
In one corner of my allotment plot is an area that looks like someone had, at sometime started a compost heap. I thought I would dig it out and see if it was usable but was disappointed to find that it contained all sorts of nasties. Why start a compost heap and then throw all sorts of crap into it?
Anyway, I spent some time clearing out all of the stuff that shouldn’t be there and put the rest back. Not sure if I will use it as compost yet.
