Sorry, I should have said before, if you grow them in rich, fertile soil (or clay), your carrots will fork. Which can be hilarious in a very childish way, but it makes them difficult to use Might be better to stick to the beets and parsnips and put your carrots in a tall deep pot with some spent compost, or a bit of soil mixed with sand. If you grow very short, stubby 'nantes' type carrots, you might just get away with it, but I'm not promising
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Sorry, I should have said before, if you grow them in rich, fertile soil (or clay), your carrots will fork. Which can be hilarious in a very childish way, but it makes them difficult to use Might be better to stick to the beets and parsnips and put your carrots in a tall deep pot with some spent compost, or a bit of soil mixed with sand. If you grow very short, stubby 'nantes' type carrots, you might just get away with it, but I'm not promising
Thank you! I think we chucked some kind of chantenay in. I won't stress to much this year but I'll know for next!
Allotment feels slow going at the moment, I think mostly because I'm dying to get to cut flowers and peas/beans because that's fun and I'm just a big kid. We've also realised that perhaps a person with agoraphobia that has panic attacks when outside (husband) and somebody whose body breaks when exposed to sunlight (me, I have weird blood) were never going to find even the easiest plot that simple 🤦♀️😂 I've been going during dusk and on rainy days to minimise UV exposure, and my husband is hoping that regularly visiting will help start to control and work with the agoraphobia.
Radishes are now coming up in my little boy's bed, so that's nice, such a reliable quick crop.
We've planted a raised bed with a couple of different strawberry types to maximise cropping across summer/early autumn and added borage as a companion plant.
Raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb have been planted at the bottom, and I'll add the raspberry and red currant from my garden to that asap as they don't have enough space to properly thrive where I've sited them at home.
Yesterday I dug over the potato bed for a second time, added five sacks of compost and some volcanic mineral dust stuff and did three rows of second earlies (Charlotte's) - will hopefully do the main crop tomorrow (Cara)
Runner beans, sweet peas, purple sugar snap peas and a few peas (for some reason I seem not to have sown many) are pretty much ready for planting once I get their bed sorted. We'll make some sort of bamboo frame for most of them, and a little bamboo den for the sweetpeas to grow over.
Greenhouse and the slabs it was on have now been removed, so keeping an eye on Facebook marketplace and gumtree for replacement slabs.
There is an Allotment thread on here which you might like to look at. There is another thread on no dig beds which has some interesting points. Good luck.
My advice would be to go online and research green manure. There’s an on line company called Sow Seeds that’s site has handy tips and info. It also sells all the green manure seeds you’ll ever want. You in effect grow your own fertiliser and help the environment too.
I would also talk to the previous occupant and ask if there are any disease problems and if so, where they are on the allotment. I’d specifically want to know about diseases that persist in the soil like club root or onion white rot to name but 2. Being aware of these problems allows you to research any required cultural modifications to get a head start in getting the best from your ground.
Good luck, it’s great fun starting on a new bit of ground and I’m a wee bit envious.
There is an Allotment thread on here which you might like to look at. There is another thread on no dig beds which has some interesting points. Good luck.
Thank you! I have popped in, but I'll try and say hi properly later.
I've read a fair bit about no dig and it does interest me, and we will almost certainly move towards that. Most of this plot was covered in thick, heavy tarp over winter and spring and still had dock and dandelions having a good attempt at life, so a lot of the initial digging was to remove those, which is recommended by Charles Dowding anyway, I think. However I suspect he'd have been far more disciplined and not turned over the rest after realising that you'd dug over three quarters whilst trying to remove roots in their entirety. Over winter I'm planning to do cardboard and loads of organic matter on top, I've been raising the local farms already so I'll have enough manure rotted down 😂🙈
My advice would be to go online and research green manure. There’s an on line company called Sow Seeds that’s site has handy tips and info. It also sells all the green manure seeds you’ll ever want. You in effect grow your own fertiliser and help the environment too.
I would also talk to the previous occupant and ask if there are any disease problems and if so, where they are on the allotment. I’d specifically want to know about diseases that persist in the soil like club root or onion white rot to name but 2. Being aware of these problems allows you to research any required cultural modifications to get a head start in getting the best from your ground.
Good luck, it’s great fun starting on a new bit of ground and I’m a wee bit envious.
I'm a bit addicted to phacelia tanacetifolia (it was put in some cheap meadow seeds, presumably as bulk, that I sowed the first year I started gardening properly and the bees when utterly wild for it so I developed a soft spot for it, so I've got a large packet somewhere. I think I may end up sowing it in any areas I run out of energy to cultivate (although resisting the urge to let it flower will be tough, I need to harden up 😂) Thank you, that had skipped my mind.
The previous allotment holder is really lovely but they only had the plot a year before moving to a different one (it has a polytunnel and gorgeous raised beds made out of slabs, one of the committee members moved away from the area and it was her plot so in stunning condition) and it was a tricky year due to ill health so the impression I got was they spent more time trying to get the plot under control (dividing it into beds, tarping them down & removing weeds, adding paths etc) than lots of cultivation. They told me they didn't use weed killer, and the potatoes and beans I'm planting this year are in different plots to last year (pure luck) and I'll quiz them again about diseases etc. I'm really grateful for all the work they put in, it's made my life so much easier. They did warn us about spiders in the shed but thankfully that's one issue that isn't a problem for us - my husband keeps tarantulas so creepy crawlies are just fine with us 😂
Thank you so much for your advice ♥️ Everybody is so kind.
We haven't been back up yet. I've been feeling really weak and sore from being out in the sun a lot. Hopefully we'll head up this afternoon, but I've got a climbing frame to put up first 🤦♀️
Grumpy day. Got the maincrop potatoes in and added a couple of rows of parsnips, fingers crossed they germinate.
Horsetail has raised its spore-y head in two beds. Nobody mentioned it to me when I asked about what difficult weeds were on this plot 🤔😂 So that's pushed us towards no dig anyway. I've ordered Rootblast and some syringes, will inject glysophate into before covering with membrane, cardboard and four - six inches of organic matter. I haven't used any weed killer in years but I was feeling particularly cross 🤦♀️
Bit anxious I've just dug its rhizomes all over the potato bed. I didn't see any sign of it but it feels unlikely it wasn't in there as it's the next bed up. Ah well.
Didn't spend much time up there, most of the day was spent building a climbing frame and I've got the other half of that to do tomorrow too. Strawberries are beginning to flower nicely and the borage has lots of buds.
Posts
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Radishes are now coming up in my little boy's bed, so that's nice, such a reliable quick crop.
We've planted a raised bed with a couple of different strawberry types to maximise cropping across summer/early autumn and added borage as a companion plant.
Raspberries, gooseberries and rhubarb have been planted at the bottom, and I'll add the raspberry and red currant from my garden to that asap as they don't have enough space to properly thrive where I've sited them at home.
Yesterday I dug over the potato bed for a second time, added five sacks of compost and some volcanic mineral dust stuff and did three rows of second earlies (Charlotte's) - will hopefully do the main crop tomorrow (Cara)
Runner beans, sweet peas, purple sugar snap peas and a few peas (for some reason I seem not to have sown many) are pretty much ready for planting once I get their bed sorted. We'll make some sort of bamboo frame for most of them, and a little bamboo den for the sweetpeas to grow over.
Greenhouse and the slabs it was on have now been removed, so keeping an eye on Facebook marketplace and gumtree for replacement slabs.
I think that's everything ♥️
Good luck.
I would also talk to the previous occupant and ask if there are any disease problems and if so, where they are on the allotment. I’d specifically want to know about diseases that persist in the soil like club root or onion white rot to name but 2. Being aware of these problems allows you to research any required cultural modifications to get a head start in getting the best from your ground.
Good luck, it’s great fun starting on a new bit of ground and I’m a wee bit envious.
I've read a fair bit about no dig and it does interest me, and we will almost certainly move towards that. Most of this plot was covered in thick, heavy tarp over winter and spring and still had dock and dandelions having a good attempt at life, so a lot of the initial digging was to remove those, which is recommended by Charles Dowding anyway, I think. However I suspect he'd have been far more disciplined and not turned over the rest after realising that you'd dug over three quarters whilst trying to remove roots in their entirety. Over winter I'm planning to do cardboard and loads of organic matter on top, I've been raising the local farms already so I'll have enough manure rotted down 😂🙈
I'm a bit addicted to phacelia tanacetifolia (it was put in some cheap meadow seeds, presumably as bulk, that I sowed the first year I started gardening properly and the bees when utterly wild for it so I developed a soft spot for it, so I've got a large packet somewhere. I think I may end up sowing it in any areas I run out of energy to cultivate (although resisting the urge to let it flower will be tough, I need to harden up 😂) Thank you, that had skipped my mind.
The previous allotment holder is really lovely but they only had the plot a year before moving to a different one (it has a polytunnel and gorgeous raised beds made out of slabs, one of the committee members moved away from the area and it was her plot so in stunning condition) and it was a tricky year due to ill health so the impression I got was they spent more time trying to get the plot under control (dividing it into beds, tarping them down & removing weeds, adding paths etc) than lots of cultivation. They told me they didn't use weed killer, and the potatoes and beans I'm planting this year are in different plots to last year (pure luck) and I'll quiz them again about diseases etc. I'm really grateful for all the work they put in, it's made my life so much easier. They did warn us about spiders in the shed but thankfully that's one issue that isn't a problem for us - my husband keeps tarantulas so creepy crawlies are just fine with us 😂
Thank you so much for your advice ♥️ Everybody is so kind.
We haven't been back up yet. I've been feeling really weak and sore from being out in the sun a lot. Hopefully we'll head up this afternoon, but I've got a climbing frame to put up first 🤦♀️
Horsetail has raised its spore-y head in two beds. Nobody mentioned it to me when I asked about what difficult weeds were on this plot 🤔😂 So that's pushed us towards no dig anyway. I've ordered Rootblast and some syringes, will inject glysophate into before covering with membrane, cardboard and four - six inches of organic matter. I haven't used any weed killer in years but I was feeling particularly cross 🤦♀️
Bit anxious I've just dug its rhizomes all over the potato bed. I didn't see any sign of it but it feels unlikely it wasn't in there as it's the next bed up. Ah well.
Didn't spend much time up there, most of the day was spent building a climbing frame and I've got the other half of that to do tomorrow too. Strawberries are beginning to flower nicely and the borage has lots of buds.