Author Archives: Steve Jones

My allotment

This year I have struggled with the weeds, as fast as I hoe them they reappear. A wise man once said “one years seeds, seven years weeds” and my plot was seriously neglected when I got it. The weeds certainly had set a copious amount of seeds. Someone else once told me “nature abhors a vacuum” so taking that on board I have started to cover areas that I have weeded and not using just now with manure/straw. I am also making raised beds. These should help me to maintain the plot with the pathways between them hopefully meaning less… → Read More

How to grow broad beans

Broad beans

Broad beans are the first bean to be harvested each year. To achieve this they have to be planted earlier than other beans. There are some varieties that can be over wintered (sown in autumn and left to grow through the winter) these include Aquadulce Claudia and the Sutton which is a dwarf variety and can be grown in a pot. Over wintering always feels to me like I’m somehow cheating nature, as there aren’t many things that grow through our cold wet winters. So it feels good to get an early crop on the go. Broad beans, like all… → Read More

What’s the quickest crop

Probably the quickest crop are radishes. I sowed a row of radish seeds four weeks ago and I’m pulling them already. I favour the variety French breakfast because I find the red and white colouration very appealing, and they have a lovely flavour. To sow radish seed just make a narrow trench not very deep just about twice as deep as the seeds are thick, then sprinkle the seed in the row then lightly cover with soil, water in with a fine rose on your watering can, then wait for roughly a month. You can see when they are ready to… → Read More

Shed some light on storage

Me taking a break outside the shed

Once I signed up for my plot I realised I would need somewhere to store my tools so a shed would have to be sourced. Now I don’t have a vast budget to play with so it soon became clear that I would have to make the shed. I was quite lucky as my dad not only has a fair supply of wood but he is also quite practical and was able to help me with the construction. The area I had earmarked for the shed wasn’t over large so I decided to make it fairly tall, so after some… → Read More

How To Make Comfrey Tea [Organic Comfrey Plant Food Guide]

How I make my own comfrey tea

What Is Comfrey? Comfrey is a herb that back in the middle ages was used by healers for all manner of conditions including acne, varicose veins and many others but its alternative name of “knit bone” gives a clue as to its main use back in the day, to speed up the healing of broken bones. Well I can’t tell you if any of that is true, all I can tell you is that as a plant food comfrey tea is second to none. Comfrey has a tap root (like a dandelion root) which penetrates deep into the sub soil,… → Read More

growing spuds

potatoes

Potatoes are a relatively easy crop to grow. There are from a growing point of view, three types of potatoes, commonly known as earlies, second earlies and main crop. So here’s how to grow spuds. Growing Spuds The difference is the amount of time they spend growing. Earlies or first earlies can be planted from late February and are ready to lift after about 10 to 12 weeks. Second earlies can be planted from March and are ready to lift after about 12 to 14 weeks. Main crop potatoes can be planted from March and are ready after about 18 to… → Read More

The plot when I took it on

waist high weeds

I was offered my allotment in early October 2014. I was to meet the site manager on the Monday morning, so on the Sunday morning my wife drove to the site so we could have a sneaky peak. Well I never expected it to be immaculate but I don’t think anything could have prepared me for what I found. The weeds were waist high, there was a pile of rubbish at one end that would have nearly filled a skip and it was obvious that this plot had been neglected for some considerable time. Of course I saw all… → Read More

Know your onions

There are two ways to grow onions, from seeds or from sets. I have grown them both ways and in my opinion you get bigger onions from sets, however you get a bigger choice of variety from seed. Growing onions from seed means starting them off in a warm environment either an unheated greenhouse or a warm window sill. Then in spring once the seedlings are roughly as thick as a pencil they can be planted outside in rows about four inches apart in well draining soil and water them in dry spells. Onion sets are easier, an onion set is… → Read More

When to plant garlic

purple garlic

When to plant garlic, the short answer is anytime from mid September to the end of November. However it’s easier to plant anything if the soil is not frozen so the earlier the better. Traditionally garlic was planted on the 31st of October and harvested on the 31st of July but this is only a guide and you will see when the garlic needs lifting as the leaves will yellow and die back. Garlic needs ten days of frost to form cloves so don’t worry if it snows or we have a particularly bad winter as this is actually helping… → Read More

Lesson learnt about Carrot fly

Just went up to my allotment to pull a few carrots for tea and I was quite happy with the size and colour and was looking forward to eating them later. On closer inspection one has been attacked by the dreaded carrot fly. Well that’s not strictly true, as it’s not the carrot fly that attacks carrots but the grub of the carrot fly. The adult carrot fly lays its eggs in the soil adjacent to the growing carrots. As the grub develops it burrows into the carrot leaving the scarring and tunnelling you can see in the image below…. → Read More