Hobbit Allotment!

[horticultural_hobbit]

Put some red, blue and white spring flowering poundland bulbs into the clay. As well as the boskoop glory and Madeleine something grape vine. I think I may have broken the latter one when persuading it from it's pot. Red currant, in its sticky glory, was shoved in.

Am going to have to speak with the universe, request that reduced amounts of precipitation fall. At the moment, as it stands, water stands. Meaning that anything and everything is most likely going to rot.

Have lots of tulips to plant still. I do like my tulips. Not quite sure whether last years are going to come through again.

Now just waiting for roses to turn up. Need to find some green barrier fencing eventually for the vines, should they actually want to grow. I did put some MPC under them and the around them.

If the worst comes to the worst, I shall have a plot full of flowers.

[snohare]

Ooh, tins - you are organised, Hoblette. I have packets scattered all over the place on flat surfaces, lurking on shelves and in gardening holdalls - the height of my efficiency is Tupperware.
But never mind the colours, it's the yum experience you should be thinking of ! (Says the man whose seeds will not germinate anyway, 'cos he left them out somewhere instead of putting them away... )
That gives me an idea for a rainy day. (This one, maybe. Was going to rake leaves, but my stomach says stay indoors.) Make a seedbox to go under the sideboard...I think there is room for one more box next to where I store the parsnips and carrots...

[horticultural_hobbit]

Think I have some in the tins, that I need to play with. Colours look so pretty...

[snohare]

I've got some silver lights chard that I couldn't get to germinate earlier this year...want some ? (A trouble chard is a trouble halved... )

[horticultural_hobbit]

Have ruby chard envy. If I'd known that it makes nice pakoras, would have sown some.

[snohare]

Hmmm... plotting together, eh ? I can just see things beginning to snowball at the Hobbitallotment...
Walked more than a mile last week, via an Orthopaedic appointment about an operation to my arthritic big toe, to the local Dobbies to buy some Enviromesh. Imagine my joy when I discovered that they did not sell it, nor anything even remotely similar.
But the good news is that I got some Shensyu onions dead cheap. Some day I may even find somewhere to put them. I too am an alliumoholic...

[horticultural_hobbit]

Another quick update

Am thinking that my eyes are bigger than my brains,

Planted so far:

Garlic:
Provence wight
Bella Italanio (gave spares to Aunty tish)
Sprint
Purple Wight
Some home saved stuff that may have been last years purple or bella.

Shallots:
Yellow moon

Still expecting red, golden gourmet. Have that Esh-something one in Dad's shed. It got stuck in the Brittany Ferry Dispute apparently.

Onions:
Radar planted, gave some Aunty Tish
Waiting for some red electric and shakespeare

Aquadulce Claudia and suttons dwarf broadies

Have put in various tulips and daffodils. Still have loads in dad's shed. But i'm not sure if I can hang onto them and then for how long.

The raised beds are still empty. Will start to fill with leaves. Four builders bags are nearly full all ready of leaves.

Ma's latest soapbox chastisement is that I should plant more indian stuff, namely her coriander, spinach and fenugreek. I will. Next year.

Aunty Tish has kindly given me 99p shop redcurrant, on the proviso that we compete over which one does better. Hers or mine. She had proper rifle through my seed tins today!

I love my Aunty Tish. My second mama really. Babysat us three(plus pops) over the traumatic summer (post op and full of anaesthetic, ma told her to look after her children, she still is).

She gets really excited telling me about her plot.

[snohare]

No need to wriggle too uncomfortably yet, young 'obbit, this is the time of year that microclimates can make all the difference - a simple rise in elevation, or slightly different aspect of slope, can radically change how frosty a plant finds things. So maybe Alys is working in a different environment to you...even though you are both would-have-beans.
Good to hear you are spreading the bulb-ous cheer, no-one can accuse you of being narcissustic !
I have a similar dilemma with my alliums. I have leeks, onions, garlic, and soon hopefully shallots; but where they went before this year they suffered from white neck rot, which makes me powerfully disinclined to grow 'em there again. Only problem is, that's about the only clear ground I have at present...and if the ground has white neck rot in it, anywhere on the plot will give them problems. That's the peril of growing on ground that has been an allotment. I have decided to compromise:
I have built a raised bed, I'm putting in lots of moss, leaves and grass and other moisture retaining materiels, and then I am going to cover that with sieved topsoil that has been sitting in piles waiting for the ground elder to die (two years and counting, time to fork and shake methinks). Of course if the spring is hot enough then they will all stop growing anyway - what is it, 75 degrees alliums stop at - but I can live in hope that shading with Enviromesh and cool, moist soil round the roots will do the trick.
If you want to make any concrete plans, I suggest a nice wee pond with the cement, then a layer of gravel and a raised bed on top, akin to Veggiechicken's Trampoline Hugelkultur/Alice Springs Bed. Droughtproofing is not a bad road to go down these days in your neck of the wood; seems laughable to those suffering the aftereffects of earlier floods, I know, but the one goes with t'other.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Quick update

Planted 100 radar sets, 25 yellow moon shallots, four bulbs of provence wight garlic plus two bulbs saved from a crop, that I have no idea what they are.

Have far far far too many floo'ers. Gave away some hyacinths and narcissus bulbs. I know, you can never have too many. have various plugs that really need planting. So must shoe horn that in as a matter of urgency. Grandad Mike kindly babysitting them.

Still expecting more onions, garlic and shallots. Not sure where I'm going to out them. Plot is going to a field of alliuems. Didn't get 'round to sowing beans yet. if Alys fowler-the otherside of the district-has got some growing, might have to get a wriggle on.

I'm not making any concrete plans whatsoever. With roses and grapes due later in the year, I'm going to carry on playing.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Morning, Feral,

The paper is approximately 2-3 sheets thick in places. Then there is dead yellowing weeds on top to weight it down; with all of it having been rained on. I probably will need to reapply at some stage whilst keeping on top of it with a hoe. I have lined some of the beds with cardboard; they were already sat on newspaper anyway.

Am thinking about sowing some broadies, perhaps the saved bulbs of garlic. Collecting builders bags. Have two now. Can fill 'em up with leaf mold and grass clippings. Then perhaps in the spring summer put some compost on top, having turned down the sides a bit. Also filling the raised beds with leaves and grass clippings to, to the same end.

Must remember to leave a square block if I want to sow sweetcorn.

[Feral007]

Sad about your pansies HH. But the rest if sounding good.
How thick did you put the paper down? I like using cardboard as it takes longer to break down, but when we use paper we use if thickly. Then we build the bed up on top of it. You smother the weeds, and they don't come through the cardboard or thick paper, but it improves the soil as everything breaks down. If the paper was put on thinly then cardboard would be ok, but might be too much to have thick newspaper and then cardboard.

[horticultural_hobbit]

one year on

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

[horticultural_hobbit]

Home straight of the raised bed saga

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

Still looking into builders bags, i know there will be another batch of leaf mold in one at least.

Not long now, and I can start think about autumn planting.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Have yet to see any mole-ys, or Vole-ys. The Shire country park-I kid you not-is directly behind the site over the fence and the dingle stream.

Well, I've tucked the newspaper under the beds. As to how good that is, I shall see.

Very very annoyed by the decimated pansies. I think the polyanthus have stayed for the moment; though they were a little bigger. Shall see what happens to the bellis belle; have of which I cooked anyway.

Sat here, trying not get carried away by the Th*mpson and M*organ catalogue that has arrived.

Oh, I munched on one of the victoria plums, in it's beautiful pinkness. Was rather nice, I could have done a small victory dance. Now if some clever aunty or uncle could tell me how to prune the corden apple and plum trees over the autumn winter.

[snohare]

The thought which occurs to me is that the cardboard, one or even two layers of it, would do well on the bottoms of your raised beds.
At Glentanar, my friend John and I found that the beds we built had two problems: moles/voles digging their way up into the bed, and weeds, growing from beneath the bed out into the paths, or vice versa.
One way we found to reduce this problem was to put down big sheets of heavy duty cardboard, which were larger than the bed, with the framework of the bed itself laid on top. This meant that weeds like couch grass trying to grow sideways and then up the inside wall of the beds, would be stopped by a barrier. Equally, voles didn't seem to want to go through the cardboard.
Temporary, unfortunately - the voles dined well on John's tatties one year ! - but worth thinking of. A less green (and more expensive) option is to use woven polypropylene mulch sheeting; that will stop moles etc dead but not rhizomes. Can't stand the stuff, personally.
Pansies eaten by slugs ? I suppose we could have expected it. You'll have to find hanging baskets or something similar to put them into, Hobbit - this summer I've seen some absolutely cracking pansies in fenceside planters, they obviously thrived on the rain without slugs getting at them.
Having just been reading that it is an El Nino year coming up, I am now planning for a scorcher of a summer next year. Wishful thinking...?