[JohnParticipant]

Thank you for the advice. The courgettes are atena polka f1 and defender f1, both from kings seeds. Which variety would you recommend?

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Charles

Thank you for the suggestion.

John

[JohnParticipant]

Rhys – I have been making comfrey tea by bagging up the leaves in a hessian sack and steeping them in a lidded water butt – no smells until I take the lid off! I can then tap it off into milk bottles. Being a wine fan I think it would be be risky for me to decant it into wine bottles. In the fading light of a winter’s afternoon it’s colour could be mistaken for a good Burgundy.

The comfrey patch has done excellent service this year. Can anyone recommend a DEEP ROOTED green manure that can be cropped for the compost heap and the roots left in to die off after a year or so of service? Alfalfa has been grown successfully here in Exmouth, as part of a four year green manure break, but I believe that it is a longer term crop and the roots are not so easy to deal with.

John

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Charles

It certainly is a small world. I borrowed the book (in the form of ring bound sheets) but do not know how to get a copy.

Another plot holder, speaking warmly about Nic, said that the old guard thought he was mad while the middle class cohort said he was eccentric, both meaning the same thing. I wonder what the good folk of Alhampton think of you!

Thank you very much for the helpful advice and the rationale behind it.

Best wishes

John

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Charles and Leif

Thanks for the comments and advice. Unfortunately Sunny Exmouth, with Met Office severe weather warnings for heavy rain, is not quite living up to its name at the moment. Heigh ho! Perhaps the pesky asparagus beetles will be washed away.

John

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Charles

I took your advice and resowed fennel in June but was loathe to put my early seedlings on the compost heap so I planted a few and they are doing well without any sign of bolting yet. Beginners luck! I think for us fennel is better as a winter crop but I am rather pleased!

Best wishes
John

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Charles

Thank you for the rapid response. I had planted garlic in the spring in the adjacent 4 foot bed and they greened up well and then all the leaves died off so I dug them up and used the area for my celeriac – this is looking good so far ….

You mention recycling the onions; does this include composting or is it better to take them off site. I am aiming at a 4 year rotation. Will the spores die off?

I also discovered very pretty beetles munching through my new asparagus ferns today; fortunately they seem to be slow to fly away so squishing is quite easy.

Still, this year will be a year without blight, eel worm, canker, club root, carrot fly … fingers crossed!

John

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Rhys

I have had the same problem although my plants have started forming pods. I SPRAYED using very diluted Ecover washing up liquid but repeated the spraying each day for 3 days, targeting the actual blackfly rather than a general spray. You do need to get in close. This did the trick. However I will continue to do this every few days as it is easy to miss some and the ones missed seem to make up for all of their relatives who haven’t survived!

John

[JohnParticipant]

second attempt at photo, firstly a link to my allotment blog …

soft fruit on raised bed

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Eliza

I am no expert but my guess is that you are trying to fit too much into a small area. You can Google planting distances for blackcurrants and raspberries which will give an idea about likely spread. Autumn raspberries are notorious for spreading laterally and you might well end up with a thicket of canes in the middle of your currant. There is room for only one plant or row in a standard 1.2 wide metre raised bed with paths either side. I think it is too late to prune to the base, but perhaps others have a different view.

Here is a photo of a single blackcurrant and autumn raspberry canes planted in the winter.

John

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Charles

Thank you the advice. For Exmouth the Met Office is forecastins gusts of up to 50mph early next week, and even Castle Carey’s forecast is not much quieter. Perhaps the slugs will be blown away.

John

[JohnParticipant]

Here is the Andy Goldsworthy image …

John

[JohnParticipant]

Zuf’s third photo puts me in mind of Andy Goldworthy
Click for Andy Goldsworthy image
The allotment garden as art!

John

[JohnParticipant]

My degree of success with peas in gutters indoors had been very variable, with less than 50% germination in one case. I have now followed a suggestion (can’t remember the source) of rolling a line of peas in a moist piece of kitchen roll, popping the roll into an unsealed plastic bag and leaving it in a warm place, such as an airing cupboard, for a few days. In one case sprouting was 50% over a couple of days so I put these in modules and did the rest over the next week by which time a few seads, but only a few, had turned to mush. Another pack of seeds gave almost 100% sprouting after a few days. It’s a bit more work in the short term but I think it’s well worth it. I suspect that at least part of my poor showing in gutters was compost which was too wet, but it is much easier to control moisture with this method.

Another advantage is knowing within a few days if you have viable seed or not. I wonder if you could try this with any seed to test viability?

John

[JohnParticipant]

Hi Charles

Am I correct in thinking that you don’t want to plug your own books shamelessly, hence not answering my second question – “Which one of your books would be best for detailed information on what and when to sow, prick out and plant?”

Best wishes

John

[Author]

Posts