Northern Lights

 

More Java Potatoes In Buckets

Seeing the pool pond working in the sunshine, and Michelle's new bees visiting for a drink makes me smile and happy.

Today on the plot mixed up new and old compost for the Java main Crop Potatoes in Buckets and planted another 16 spuds worth, just a few more buckets to go and the spuds will be done. Photo above Java Maincrop at 1/3 depth of the bucket

Java Main crop potatoes at 2/3 depth of the bucket. 

Bucket topped up with compost.

Buckets moved to Bed 1 on the allotment and watered. Next lot of grass will go on top as a mulch.

The First Earlies are showing now. I attacked all the bindweed with weed killer until the weed killer ran out. Watered the Red Baron onions and reading all the Facebook posts about them it may have been a little foolish to have just grown the one variety this year, as they are prone to bolt, time will tell. Watered the two grapevines.

Win A Waltons Greenhouse Worth £499.99

 

Fancy winning a 6x4ft stylish wooden greenhouse worth £500?!

Thompson & Morgan have teamed up with their friends at Waltons Garden Buildings to give away a quality wooden Evesham greenhouse.

If you haven’t already entered, please give it a go now

Potatoes In Buckets

Again thank to my sister for sorting out my socks and medical boots, early this morning so I could get to the allotment again between 10:00 - 13:30 and worked in the sun (sun block applied) to get some main crop potatoes into buckets, trim the path to the entrance and add grass clippings as mulch to the potatoes, SFG Bed 2 and the Hotbin.

Java Main Crop Potatoes added to the buckets at 1/3 depth of the bucket

Then another two spuds added at 90 degrees at 2/3 depth of the bucket, then topped up to about 25- 30mm from the top of the bucket.

Main crop Java spuds in buckets moved to Bed 1 and watered in then a layer of grass clippings added to the top of the buckets as a mulch.

Buckets ready for mixing more old and new compost together next visit to get more Main Crop Java spuds out of the potting shed and into the buckets to grow.

KC5383 Grapevine Plant - Flame Red (Seedless) Grapevine to the right of the comfrey pipe bursting into leaf.

KA1985 Grapevine (Vitis) Lakemore White (Seedless) to the left of the comfrey pipe also bursting into leaf 

The weed killer has finally worked on the bindweed to the runner bean climbing frame

Walking onion Bed needs the timber framing re installed around it on a future visit.

Cut Branches that need processing i.e. cutting up further and adding to the Square Foot Gardening Bed 2 next to the potting shed. 

Nettles in bed next to Hotbin need to be removed, Grass clippings from my sister also added to the Hotbin today.

Grass clippings over from the potatoes in buckets & filling the Hotbin were added to the weathered woodchips and branches from the trimmed tree and watered in. Coffee grounds also added. It's going to take some time to get this bed to a level where the excavated Mel's Mix can be put back in but little and often and suddenly the bed will be ready to use, and I can move on to sorting out the Square Foot Gardening Bed 1 next door. 

SFG Bed 2 goes Hügelkultur

My sister came this morning to help me with my socks and medical boots, and it was off for the morning and little bit of the afternoon on the allotment. I watered what's growing in the potting shed and then attacked the plum tree that has never given me a fruit as its getting way too big. I'm going to use it to fill the bottom of my now extended raised Square Foot Gardening bed next to the potting shed.

Lazy Housewife French Climbing Beans doing well

Cucumbers doing well in the self watering pop bottle propagators

One of my new favorite tools the Bamse Mini Chainsaw came out to play and  I have to say it was £39.99 well spent, makes cutting the tree back really easy. 

View from the path between plot 2 & 3 the Plum tree has been trimmed from the front and back 

I cut up as much as I could in the sun and then took the wheel barrow to SFG Bed 2

View from the potting shed of Square Foot Garden Bed 2 before adding the contents of the wheel barrow. To save buying lots of compost or soil I'm layering the bottom of the bed with the branches from the plum tree that I'm reducing and possibly removing in my take on a Hügelkultur Square Foot Gardening Raised Bed.

Contents of the wheel barrow added

First bag of weathered bark from Wally added to the bed and watered in. Lots more tree to cut up and the promise of grass cutting from my sister in the next couple of days, the bed will slowly get filled. 

Hedgehog Awareness Week

 

Terracotta Pot Slug Traps

If you catch 'good' slugs, like Leopard Slugs, release them away from the traps. Here is how you make and use a chemical free terracotta clay pot slug and snail trap. Two pots keep moisture in the trap and that equals a wonderful trap home for snails and slugs! You get to evict them. You can decide what varieties to keep, relocate, or remove. No chemicals are used so you can chose what to do.

All By Myself .....

 

Today I went back to the allotment all by myself, for a couple of hours and took the timber stacked on SFG Bed 2 off and bottomed out the bed of the Mel's Mix into a couple of square flower buckets.

I lined the bottom of the excavation with a few layers of Magic Cardboard and watered those in place, then I took my mini chainsaw and my Kent & Stowe Sure Cut All Purpose Extra Power Loppers which will handle up to 35mm diameter thick branches to the plum tree and started to fill up the bottom half of the Square Foot Garden Bed 2 with the timber.

Scraped the outside Mels Mix away from the inside of the timber forming the bed

Then bottomed it out using the plastic shovel. The Magic Cardboard that I originally lined the beds with was never found, the worms and bacteria has consumed it, and I know it's not a barrier to weed roots or invading raspberry canes but I'm going to line the bottom again with additional cardboard to try and hold the weeds back a little if possible.

Lined with a layer of Magic Cardboard which was watered in place

Then another layer layer of Magic Cardboard which was also watered in

Then I attacked the plum tree and started to cut up the branches to fill the bottom of the raised bed. It stared to spit a little with rain, so I packed up the tolls and went home for a late lunch.

I picked up this mini Bamsa chainsaw when it was on offer on Amazon for £39.99. 

It's Lightweight and manoeuvrable, with a cutting chain as good as any full-size chainsaw. Quick and easy to set up and use. It is supplied in a case which keeps all of the bits together, the kit includes all of the adjustment tools necessary, a comprehensive instruction manual and even a small tube of chainsaw oil.

It's the first time I've used it and it was awesome. 

I'm looking forward to attacking the rest of the tree with it.

The Kent & Stowe Sure Cut All Purpose Extra Power Loppers which will handle up to 35mm diameter thick branches also made light work of cutting up the branches into more manageable lengths. 

The Kent & Stowe Loppers knocked spots off the long handled loppers I already have, the grip is better and the length of the arms is selectable and longer giving me more leverage, and as can be seen the cutting sections look much more robust and fit for purpose.    

I used secateurs to cut the smaller branches and drop them in the bed.

May The Forth Be With Us

It was also our first Family BBQ on the allotment, and I hope its not the last. The weather was kind to us, even getting cloudy in the afternoon once we had all had a little too much sun in the morning.

Yes we knew it's Naked Gardening Day but we resisted !

Pre germinated parsnips transplanted into loo rolls of compost on the back seat of the car and ready for transit to the allotment to go into the ground this morning. 

Kelly & Frazer who excavated the Mels Mix and installed posts at the ends of the Raspberry beds so I can get a framework assembled to hold the Raspberries back this year

The Square Foot Garden Beds are only going to be made one additional frame higher. The top level of timber is for the bed next door

The top level of timber is for the SFG bed 1 next door

There is not enough timber on the wood pile to make both beds this high, but two frames high will at least enable me easier access for weeding and maintenance.

Raspberry beds now the security fencing panel has been relocated means the raspberry paths will be accessible from both ends now for harvesting this year. 

Raspberry Beds. I though I had more roofing battens than I do so I may have to buy a few 2.4m lengths to complete the cages to keep the canes from covering the paths.

Mels Mix from the beds in sacks in front of the potting shed, and too the rear of the potting shed. In the Potting shed Lazy Housewife french beans are germinating and 3 of the 5 varieties of cucumbers sown are showing in the pop bottle self watering propagators.

Two gorgeous daughters in the foreground and three not so wise monkey's in the background sorting timber from the timber pile for the bed frames.

Emma cleared a lot of the mares tail bless her I know she hates weeding, which makes clearing it even more special.

Emma & Kelly planted 105 Parsnips in loo rolls into this years parsnip bed. Then covered them up with hoops and scaffolding debris netting.

Andy retrofitted timbers to the Loft Conversion and re fixed the louver grill and fans on the Plot 1A Greenhouse. I just need to sort out the support for the solar panel and the fans will be operative again. I'm also going to put some straps internally against suction and uplift, but that's a job for another day once I have built some steps to get in and out of the greenhouse or modified the door opening. 

Three Men and a Wood Pile, there were so many different sizes of cross sections of timber that I had salvaged when they were doing the conversion of the industrial units to domestic flats behind the allotment, we had to go through the whole wood pile to find enough timbers of similar cross section to extend the height of both of the Square Foot Garden beds by one additional timber height of approximately 200mm or 8".