Category Archives: Uncategorised

Growing parsnips

parsnips

The season for growing parsnips starts in February. I start mine off in toilet roll middles filled with compost in the greenhouse. I use toilet roll middles as the ends are open and this allows the roots to grow without being disturbed(parsnips will fail or become twisted or split if the roots are disturbed). Once the seedlings have established I transfer them (still in the toilet roll middle) to the allotment having forked the area to a depth of two forks. Then using a dibber I make a hole large enough to place the toilet roll middle into the ground… → Read More

Growing tomatoes

Tomatoes are one of the easiest plants to grow in my opinion. When growing tomatoes you have two choices either bush or cordon type. If you decide to grow bush type tomatoes you just leave all the growth to develop. Cordon tomatoes just have one main stem and you will need to take off growing spurs as they appear, this is quite simple to do as you can pinch them out with just your fingers. The growing spurs will grow between the main stem and the side branches at the “y” point. Growing Tomatoes Start your tomato seeds off in… → Read More

Stroke recovery encouraging words

The following was sent to me recently and I wanted to share it here as it has helped me to understand what’s happening to me and I hope it will help others. There is a chapter in a Book on Stroke by Wallace Sife, a New Yorker ‘poet, humanist and psychologist’. “The intense sense of personal loss parallels the psychological reactions one has when grieving the death of a loved one. Indeed, there is a bereavement; in a sense, the old self has died. The loss is intense and traumatic. But this too will pass, if one’s potential courage and… → Read More

Making a wild flower meadow

Wildflower meadow

After a conversation I had with my mate Wayne at the Big Garden on Wednesday I’ve been doing some research into creating a wild flower meadow. Any garden will benefit from allowing even a small area to become a haven for wildlife. It’s good for bio-diversity, and it’s good to encourage pollinators onto your plot. So if you have even a small grass area and you want to convert it to a wildflower meadow start by clearing the grass, then ensure that you sow some yellow rattle ( Rhinanthus minor) this is a hemi parasite that fixes its roots onto the root systems of adjacent grasses… → Read More

The new season begins

Leeks

This morning I planted some peas that I’d had soaking indoors they’re now in individual pots in the greenhouse. In a few weeks I’ll transplant them onto the plot to replace the ones that rotted. I also sowed some leek seeds (Musselburgh) in a seed tray in the greenhouse, these will be grown on until they are roughly pencil size and then I will plant them in the raised bed that is already prepared for them on the allotment. My seed potatoes have arrived and my shallot sets. I will be chitting the potatoes over the next six weeks and… → Read More

Growing squashes

selection of squashes from the plot

To my mind nothing is more pleasurable than successfully growing squashes.Squashes are relatively easy to grow, they pretty much all require the same things so I’ll bunch all of the following together; Courgettes Marrows Pumpkins Butternuts Cucumbers Patty pans Growing squashes Plant squash seeds in compost and start off about six weeks before last expected frosts where I am (Essex) this is usually late March. I grow one seed in a small pot then pot on as they develop usually I have to pot on three times before it is time to plant outside and the plants are usually quite well established… → Read More

Crop rotation

Crop Rotation I like to grow my produce organically (without any chemical intervention). So to keep disease at bay I rotate my crops by the four crop rotation system. This sounds complex but is actually quite simple. Imagine that the above image is the plot, in the blue section (1) plant potatoes and tomatoes and squashes then in the green section (2) plant brassicas, in the brown section (3) plant roots and in the yellow section (4) plant legumes. Then in the following year move round by one degree so in (1) plant roots, in (2) plant potatoes etc. in… → Read More

Gardeners friends

Whilst weeding the onion beds the other morning I noticed I was being shadowed by a robin, it’s a marvellous feeling to me, to be at one with nature. The robin knew that I was no threat to him and even if I was he wasn’t that close, but as I was turning the soil with a fork he was following on pecking any grubs that I exposed. That’s just fine by me as I grow organically so any help I can get to keep the pest population down is always welcome. Any way it got me thinking about othergardeners… → Read More

Pots that don’t cost a fortune

Newspaper pot

Everything these days is expensive, and also the more we consume the more we damage the environment. So I recycle where I can, if we have yogurts I save the pots, pierce a hole in the bottom with a screw for drainage and I’ve got a pot to start a seed off in. As we often have yogurt I have a steady supply of pots that don’t cost a fortune. If we buy mushrooms from a supermarket I reuse the plastic container as a seed tray. The clear plastic containers make great mini greenhouses placed on top of seed trays…. → Read More

What’s happened to the peas

The no show peas

About a month ago I sowed three rows of peas (Kelvedon wonder) and having just inspected the plot I only have about eight seedlings. So where have they gone? Whats happened to them? What’s happened to the peas? I expected thirty or so seedlings, so I did some research. Peas are a source of food for birds in all stages of their life, seeds, seedlings, plants and pea pods. Well I knew this and I netted the pea bed at the same time as sowing. Mice and other rodents also feed on peas but there is no evidence of… → Read More