My Beautiful Pond and Other Things

At last we are producing food!  Not alot, a few radishes, some rocket and some mixed salad leaves, but it's a start.

In the last couple of weeks we've had some right random weather - no rain at all since 1st May,  outrageously hot at times, and some shockingly cold nights.  I'm really glad I've held off from planting my delicate courgettes and squashes.  Lots of people lost early runner beans and potatoes.  Just when I thought it had adapted to life without a polytunnel, my grape vine copped it rather badly on the final freezing night.  It had had a fabulous growth spurt in all the hot weather, only for those delicate new sprouts and leaves to turn brown and curl up miserably in the cold.  At the same time I've been watering daily and filling up my water butts from the tap with the hose.

Now the night time temperatures have warmed up, I've sown mangetout, runner beans, and planted out some courgettes.  I'm still holding off on the squashes, as it's suddenly turned cold and windy, and there should be a warm settled period coming up.  

Making use of the plastic-free polytunnel.  Mangetout are sown on the outside edge with netting which I'll pull down once they are up.  Inside I'm using the centre long pole to attach long canes for runner beans.  

The outside bed of the polytunnel took forever to dig, as it hadn't really been used for years, and I've planted 40 leeks, like strands of green hair, leaving them in the holes made with a stick.  My leeks are always so disappointing in size, so this year I've also potted a number on and will plant elsewhere when they have reached a better size. I've also planted some cabbage seedlings in this bed, and potted more on ready for when I have prepared some more beds. 

Leeks like strands of hair and they never grow much thicker than spring onions, or chunky felt tips at best.  Seriously researching how to grow bigger ones is on my to do list. 

 
 

I've cautiously planted some courgettes, each in a big dollop of home made compost from kitchen scraps etc, into this lasagne bed which I've been layering with straw, horse manure and grass cuttings.  I've snuggled each one in a generous swathe of sheep wool, to detract slugs and snails, but also to give them a little extra protection from weather. 

I'm waiting for this sweetcorn to grow a bit bigger and stronger before I plant it out, but it's going in the middle of the courgette bed. where the plants can support each other and benefit from the shade casting courgettes leaves which will hopefully help to retain moisture in the bed

No Dig Beds 

I am currently using three beds which have been prepared using the no dig method, but I've had at least one on the go for the past couple of years.  

What I've learned about no dig beds:

1.  The cardboard needs to cover the ground TOTALLY.  One of the beds I'm using this year I covered in cardboard at the end of last year, and some of it had rotted away exposing the ground.  I started piling grass cuttings and seaweed and manure on it in the spring, and planted up in April.  With retrospect I should have covered it with more cardboard as the grass grows daily in among my seedlings.   

I hoe the grass every day I go over the plot, but can't get to the roots without disturbing my beetroot and lettuce seedlings.  It is a pain.  Should have watched more Charles Dowding videos first.... ah well, now I know.  DON'T SKIMP ON THE CARDBOARD!!

2.  Have an edge to the bed - leave some bare cardboard around the perimeter of the bed, so you can easily add more if the grass and weeds are creeping inwards.  I've found I can lift the cardboard edge up and slide more underneath, which seems so far to be really helpful. 

3.  Let the grass clippings etc have a chance to rot down a bit.  The above bed was almost hollow underneath when I sowed the seeds on the surface layer of compost.  Lots of seeds just fell through, and I resowed the empty patches, and the jury is still out on how root veg (beetroot in this case) will respond to growing in it's airy growth space. 

4.  Collect bags of compostable material wherever and whenever it's possible.  I've just missed out on loads of sacks of horse manure because I kept putting off having the smelly bags in my car.  Seaweed from a beach walk, leaves, other peoples grass cuttings - it'll all rot down and provide a nutritious layer on a no dig bed. 

The Pond!!

Plans are afoot for sheds and compost bins made from pallets, which my sons are in charge of building, as I have no practical skills whatsoever in terms of building stuff, and we were also talking ponds.  Surprise surprise the pond won!  

Hazel did some research and came up with some benefits of having (a small) pond.   

1.Water storage 

2. Attract wildlife/biodiversity 

3.Spread sunshine (reflecting on the water I think) 

4. Reduce environmental stress by temperature regulation 

5. Use of space (this is a good point as we've put it in a previously unused spot) 

6. Relaxation (also good, as previously the sitting area was round the bonfire site, which is mostly unlit and a big pile of burnables.  We were naturally attracted to the pond instantly and started using it as a focal point to sit around) 

7.Attract frogs to eat slugs 

We had a stressful afternoon of arguing about where the pond would be best situated and nothing got done, then I finally agreed to this unloved corner, and hey presto it was dug! 

Position of pond.  Previously chaos corner.  Was a dumping ground for old carpets and metal and rubbish - totally overgrown with brambles.  There is a little cherry tree in the foreground, but we'll keep it pruned to a manageable size and hopefully won't shade the pond too much.  It gets plenty of sun, but is in shade early in the morning and in the evening.

Pond consists of black plastic tub, about 3 feet across and 18 inches deep.  Oscar added stones to the bottom and then spent time carefully constructing a hedgehog ramp, so that any small animals will be able to get out should they fall in.  I placed the stones around the edge and searched for plants. 

More research from Hazel: 

The pond should have plenty of sun, also some shade. 

Avoid being too close to trees because of leaf drop  

Choose plants for inside and outside the water allowing frogs to hide 

Marginal plants  

Floating plants - low maintenance and give frogs a place to rest 

Chaos corner transformed!  I've not located any plants for the water yet, and transplanted bits of herbs and flowers from other parts of the allotment around the edge, as well as some ferns and I've put some tiny hollyhock seedlings at the back, which if they grow, will hide the fence and provide big leafy hiding places.  Oscar placed a bit of pottery pipe at the back as a safe space for critters too.

Much as I enjoy writing this blog - it takes ages (I'm a bit sloth-like - not fast at anything apart from drinking wine) and the sun is shining!  I'm off to plant my squashes!  (And hoe - endlessly hoe... Hoe hoe hoe in fact)

The Joy of Composting

I'm really trying to get a grip of the home compost situation this year. 

 Feeding the soil with rotted organic matter is the only game in town actually.

I watched a wonderful and important film called simply 'Dirt' which explains beautifully why.

Watch Dirt the movie

I was really happy to be able to empty one of my home compost bins which I've been filling with mainly veg peelings, grass cuttings and torn up cardboard for the last year, and found it is pretty much rotted down to deliciously rich organic compost (a bit lumpy still, but the veg won't care).  I've bagged it up ready to move to the plot and use when I plant my squashes and courgettes.

Charles Dowding (he of the no-dig bed expertise) gives great advice in his composting video, which has confirmed and explained some things for me.

Watch Charles Dowding's excellant compost video

1. It's find to put wood ash in your compost.  Hooray!
2. It's okay to put perennial weeds including couch grass in your compost.  Thank goodness for that.  It would be a nightmare job trying to separate them anyway ( I know - I used to try).
3. My garden shredder was a good investment (£20 on ebay), as all those woody bush shreddings are a great compost addition.

It's not perfect, and you end up with lots of long stringy bits, and it's hellish noisy, but I'm really glad I bought this cheap garden shredder.

This was a huge buddleia tree we cut down, til a lengthy lockdown afternoon putting it through the shredder.
 I now have a huge tub of 'brown' compost additive, so when I put a load of 'green' weeds in my compost bin, I shove in a few handfuls of the shreddings to cover it.

Inspired by all this compost conversation, together with the free online permaculture course I've been following, I thought it was time to plan some building jobs over at the plot. 

The aims of the structures are:

1.   Protect tools from some winter weather
2.   Keep pots and things from blowing all around the allotment
3.   House my compost creation at the allotment
4.   Collect rainwater using the roofs with guttering and water butts.

We have an excess of pallets currently looking like crap in my front garden, plenty of roof felt left over from reroofing our shed at home and two able sons with time on their hands.

Watch this space.... In the spirit of biodiversity, plans for a small pond are emerging too!

Seedling City

At home I have seedlings galore now, and we've eaten our first little leaves from the salad leaves I sowed in troughs earlier.  The spinach is slower though, and I'm impatient to stop buying big bags of the stuff from the supermarket and eat my own.

Turns out the peas shoots are delicious, a scrumptious tender leafy flavour of pea (surprise),  although they haven't made it to the kitchen so far, as they get harvested as snacks every time I'm pottering and watering the seedlings.

Spicy salad leaves in the left tub, and I've sown a few lettuce down the edges.  Now it's May I'm hoping they go whoosh!

I have plenty of courgettes, but because they were so slow to germinate I sowed more in the same pots.  Needless to say they all came up, but the first ones to appear had this strange sickly looking yellow marbelling to the leaves.  The next set of leaves seem to be fine.  I'm moving them and the squashes out of the shed every morning, and back in at night, just in case.  There's a possible frost forecast for next week, and I've murdered previous courgettes as late as May 12th before now, so I'll continue to be rigorous about putting them in til the last chance of frost is over.

Meanwhile over at the plot Oscar and I have created a new bed.  Most of it is a flower bed, and I've transplanted any random foxgloves and poppies from other parts of the allotment into it.  We've also planted some sunflowers, mallow seedlings,  morning glory seedlings, sown wild flower and nasturtium seeds ,thrown bee bombs and are hoping for a riot of lovely colour this summer!

I've also used one end of to sow more lettuce and some carrots.

Our new flower bed.  This area has been used as a general dumping ground for years, and was also the site of an old compost heap we cleared last year, so I'm hoping the soil will be rich and nutritious already.

The final meal of purple sprouting.... Have let the rest of it flower so I can save the seeds for next year.  This year's seedlings are already a couple of inches high and just waiting for me to prepare a bed for them.

So now it's May and everything is about to spurt into wild growth and rapid germination and we'll have our work cut out just keeping the weeds down and planting out the seedlings which are everywhere in my garden at home at the moment.  Since we are in lockdown still I'm also hoping we'll have time to make my shed and compost bins a reality, and thoughts of a pond are becoming increasingly appealing.  Frogs eat slugs and snails after all.  That would be nice.