Penellype's Allotment

[Penellype]

As anticipated, yesterday was a complete write-off. I managed to get down there morning, lunchtime and evening, getting rather wet each time, but collecting over a dustbin full of water. There should be more this morning from overnight rain.

Other than that I won't have any time for gardening today.

[Penellype]

A couple of busy days with little time to garden and unhelpful weather. Most of the gardening time has been spent covering and uncovering strawberries and potatoes. Even so, the Nicola potatoes at the allotment have black patches on the leaves where they have been touching the plastic cover (the same thing happened with this variety last year) - this appeared yesterday after the local weather station reported an overnight minimum of -2. I really need to get the covers off the potatoes now, but that will depend on the forecast.

[Penellype]

Managed a couple of sessions at the plot yesterday.

Having already spent about an hour weeding at my friend's I wanted a job that I could do standing up, so I went round and trimmed the new growth back on the hedges. As I was using secateurs this took me quite a while, and by the time I had finished I could see shower clouds bubbling up and looking quite black in places. Time to go home.

There were a couple of sharp showers with a few rumbles of thunder, which kept me indoors for much of the afternoon. When they had cleared away I went down and collected the water from the bin lids and dug a little horsetail out of part of the path between the raised beds and the tunnel. Plenty more of this to do, as always.

[Penellype]

Although I spent a large amount of time gardening yesterday, not all that much of it was at the allotment. As usual at a weekend I spent the morning at my friend's, mucking out the horses and seeing to her veg garden. I also spent quite a while in my own garden, weeding paths and generally tidying up.

In between I spent about an hour at the plot. I took down some pea seedlings and put them in the growhouse, making room for more plants at home. I then dug some more horsetail out of the path alongside the tunnel. It doesn't sound much, but as the soil is compacted from being walked on and the horsetail is thin, spindly shoots it took me quite a while to dig about 5ft of path. More of the same still to do. To give my back a bit of a rest I also started on the path between the growhouse hotbed and the rhubarb - that was a bit softer as it has been more recently dug.

After an hour or so I had had enough and harvested some spinach for tea.

[Penellype]

A gorgeous sunny day yesterday and I made the most of it at the plot and in the garden.

The forecasts have now removed the frost risk from this area so I decided it was time to clear out the grow light garden to make room for more seedlings that need potting on. I took 2 rapidly growing courgette plants and 5 lettuces to put in the growhouse on the hotbed. The shelves are now just about full of trays of lettuces, peas, leeks, courgettes and beetroot. I've taken the larger lettuces and the strawberries out of there to make space.

I'd decided also to remove the plastic covers from the potatoes as the foliage was pressing against the plastic, which was starting to do more harm than good. I hung these to dry on the compost bins, and they were soon dry in the warm sunshine.

As usual the main job was to tackle the horsetail and I decided to start with the road end outside the tunnel, where the blueberry bushes are, as there were some quite big pieces here. There were also some remnants of the perennial flowers that were there last year which were starting to grow. I dug these out and put the blueberry bushes back. I then had a look round the tunnel and removed a few pieces of horsetail that were poking up through the soil. There is still the area where the shelves are to dig - I need to eat the leeks and find a better home for the cherry tree before I can fully clear that end.

By the time I'd done that it was lunchtime so I harvested a lettuce, some rhubarb and the first beetroot from the hotbed:



This was so much nicer than the overwintered beetroot I was eating earlier in the spring - like a completely different vegetable.

After lunch I went back and for a change cut back the nettles in the roadside hedge and pulled out the horsetail that was growing among them. Then I worked my way along the edge of the grass path between my plot and the next one, which is absolutely infested with horsetail. I managed about a 3ft section before my back had had enough of bending down, then I trimmed the long grass where I'd removed the horsetail, picked some spinach for tea and went home.

[Penellype]

Another glorious sunny day yesterday. I went down early to open the growhouse, which I'd shut the previous night because of the courgettes. Although this was intended to be just a quick visit, I ended up staying for nearly an hour, pulling horsetail out of the grass path. I also pulled a load of rhubarb that was overhanging the grass to cook for the freezer.

I was back later in the morning and finished the path, then mowed all the grass and trimmed the long edges. I picked a lettuce and another beetroot (yellow this time) for lunch.

By the afternoon it was getting quite hot and I decided that the growhouse needed a little shading as the courgettes were starting to wilt. I'd already removed the lettuce seedlings to the tunnel as it was clearly too hot for them in there. I covered the growhouse with a piece of white insect mesh - I may need to change this to green if it is still getting too hot.

I walked round pulling horsetail from in amongst the rhubarb and under the hedge, and planted the summer leeks in their raised bed. This bed "should" now be full - it contains leeks, beetroot, turnips and parsnips, but the parsnips haven't germinated yet. This was a new packet of seed but they have been in the soil over a month, so I put some seeds to chit on damp kitchen paper the other day to test them. I can guarantee that if I re-sow them the original lot will germinate within days!

[Snadger]

Another glorious sunny day yesterday. I went down early to open the growhouse, which I'd shut the previous night because of the courgettes. Although this was intended to be just a quick visit, I ended up staying for nearly an hour, pulling horsetail out of the grass path. I also pulled a load of rhubarb that was overhanging the grass to cook for the freezer.

I was back later in the morning and finished the path, then mowed all the grass and trimmed the long edges. I picked a lettuce and another beetroot (yellow this time) for lunch.

By the afternoon it was getting quite hot and I decided that the growhouse needed a little shading as the courgettes were starting to wilt. I'd already removed the lettuce seedlings to the tunnel as it was clearly too hot for them in there. I covered the growhouse with a piece of white insect mesh - I may need to change this to green if it is still getting too hot.

I walked round pulling horsetail from in amongst the rhubarb and under the hedge, and planted the summer leeks in their raised bed. This bed "should" now be full - it contains leeks, beetroot, turnips and parsnips, but the parsnips haven't germinated yet. This was a new packet of seed but they have been in the soil over a month, so I put some seeds to chit on damp kitchen paper the other day to test them. I can guarantee that if I re-sow them the original lot will germinate within days!

My parsnips still haven't germinated yet either. They are deemed to go three times to the Devil before showing there heads above the soil for some reason!
You appear to have a never ending battle against mares tail. Are you winning do you think?

[Penellype]

My parsnips still haven't germinated yet either. They are deemed to go three times to the Devil before showing there heads above the soil for some reason!
You appear to have a never ending battle against mares tail. Are you winning do you think?

I know parsnips are slow, I think I am just being impatient. Mine were sown on 12th April, so they have "only" been in just over a month. Last year I (re)sowed on 24th April and they were germinating on 12th May, so the jury is out at the moment.

Never ending battle against mares tail is right. There are areas I am never going to clear - under the hedges and in the grass path alongside next door's plot (because he doesn't dig his out). All I can do with these is break it off at ground level wherever I see it, and that is not going to go away. I'm hoping that I can reduce the problem in the beds and tunnel to the odd rogue piece but that is going to take a few years. For now, there is definitely less of it popping up than there was this time last year, but I pulled a piece out of the hotbed yesterday. The trouble is that once something is growing in the beds it is not possible to dig the stuff out, so it gets a chance to take hold again.

So - winning, probably not, making progress, yes definitely.

[Penellype]

Another warm and sunny day digging out horsetail. This time I did the area between the peas and the rhubarb, where I intend to plant runner beans. This has been used as a path so it was hard going. I also finished off the area between the rhubarb and the new hotbed and pulled a few bits of horsetail out from the pea bed.

I put away some of the bricks and bits of wood that have been holding down the covers over the potatoes and weighing down the tarpaulin, and replaced the tarpaulin with weed matting as I'd rather not use the tarpaulin as a permanent path (I will need it when harvesting potatoes).

Then I dug up 2 of the leeks from the tunnel- these were ones that I rescued when I dug up the leek bed last year, the plants having been razored off at ground level by slugs. There were 5 in all and 3 of them have made half decent plants. I removed some horsetail from in amongst.

I also harvested lettuce and spinach, and gave everything a good drink of water, then went home to spend some time mowing lawns and trimming edges.

[Penellype]

No time for gardening yesterday.

First job today was to collect up the small amount of rain water from overnight rain. There was about 1/2 a watering can full in total.

I then went round the tunnel checking carefully for horsetail shoots and digging out the few I found. I also dug the area near the door, which means that the only part of the tunnel not recently dug is Mr Toad's corner. I have no idea if he is still in residence.

A quick visit to the garden centre for some bedding plants meant I had some marigolds to take to the plot after lunch. I also took a packet of carrot seeds (Autumn King) and sowed them in the tunnel inside the little plastic edging with copper tape round that I made for the purpose last year. It didn't really work last year, but this time I have added some "slug gone" in the hope that they will survive. I also planted out the beetroot seedlings from the growhouse in the tunnel.

After that little interlude it was back to the horsetail and I dug some more of the path near the tunnel before it was time to pick some spinach and head home.

[Penellype]

Saturday was really busy and I had no time to do anything except go down first thing to check for water (none) and collect the jar of slugs for my friend's chickens.

Yesterday was better and I spent a decent chunk of time at the plot around lunchtime. The main job was to finish digging the path next to the tunnel - there was just the awkward bit between the hotbed and tunnel to do. This is tricky because the high sides of the hotbed mean that there is not much room to use the fork as a lever except in the direction of the path. This area is also full of tiny horsetail shoots, some not much thicker than a hair, which are nearly impossible to see and completely impossible not to break. I did the best I could, by which time I was getting far too hot in the sunshine.

I wandered round for a bit pulling a few bits of horsetail and weeds and picking up the odd snail, then harvested some spinach and rhubarb for the freezer and went home to sow the runner beans.

I was back in the evening to water. I'd left everything except the plants in the growhouse on Saturday, anticipating heavy showers both days, but it was clear that nothing was going to happen, so I gave everything a good drink. 4 of my dustbins are now empty. If the promised rain doesn't appear I reckon I have about 10 days water left.

[Penellype]

Today's main job was to get the bedding plants out (or at least some of them) at home, and this required a trip to the garden centre for a few more plants and some strulch to mulch the bed with. Preparing the soil and planting out took much of the rest of the time available, but I did manage a trip to the plot at lunchtime, when I deadheaded the bluebells along the roadside hedge and removed horsetail, nettles and grass that were growing behind them.

The lettuces and spinach in the hotbed are now getting a bit tall for the net, which means I will soon have to remove it. I'm not sure if this will allow carrot fly in, so I decided to investigate the state of the carrots, and harvested 2. They were a reasonable size considering they were only sown in February - about 3/4 inch across and 4 inches long. I also harvested the usual lettuce and spinach.

The rain was again a tease. A huge shower approached from the west, clipped the north of the village then once it was clear of me moved south so that looking at the radar you would have sworn it rained here. It rained hard at the stables 2 miles away, but not a drop at the allotment.

[Penellype]

No time at all at the plot on Tuesday, but I intended to make up for that yesterday.

I went down in the morning and sowed some parsnips from a new packet, as the ones I put to chit from the previous (also new) packet were showing no signs of life. With hindsight it was stupid of me to buy them from where I did - the garden centre concerned is basically a huge greenhouse, and it gets very hot at times. I suspect the seeds (which did not have a foil inner packet) have not liked the storage conditions. The new packet is from somewhere else.

Having done that I went round the tunnel and dug up all the bits of horsetail that were starting to appear. Almost all of these were shoots from tiny pieces of root and the whole thing came out, but I am under no illusions that I have got it all!

The next job was to clear the horsetail from the road side of the hawthorn hedge. The council have been along with weedkiller and everything else is dead, giving the horsetail free run to take over, which it is doing very rapidly. I spent about half an hour pulling out everything I could reach, and there are only a few shoots that are entangled in nettles in the middle of the hedge left. While I was doing this an old lady came to wait for the bus and told me she had been friends with the person who used to have my allotment, who has now died. She said she was glad to see that I was keeping it so well, which was nice.

Once I had finished I had had enough of bending down, so I harvested a lettuce and a beetroot and went home.

I'd intended to do more in the afternoon, but events rather took charge and I ended up waiting in for phone calls and only had time to water in the evening.

[Snadger]

Just wondered Penellype, is the amount of horsetail you seem to be pulling out on a daily basis really helping or are you not just root pruning and making it flourish? Luckily I have never had to deal with this pernicious weed so wil plead ignorance on the subject.

[Penellype]

I think it is really helping. When I first got the plot there was a network of horsetail roots about 8 inches below the surface throughout the whole area. Left to itself, as the next door plot holder did with half his plot last spring, this results in something that looks like a meadow, except that the "grass" is 100% horsetail. I think you would struggle to grow much at all in this without attacking it somehow.

My approach is a 2-pronged attack. Where I can dig, I have dug out all the root I can, digging it over several times with a fork rather than a spade, to avoid chopping it up as much as possible. If I find a long root I try to tease it out if possible, although sometimes it breaks off. I then watch for any regrowth, and dig out individual pieces as they grow, again trying to get the whole thing out. This continues until I plant something, and then I can't dig so I pull out whatever comes up, which often breaks off. Many of the shoots coming up now (but not all) are smaller and thinner, coming from small pieces of root that I am gradually completely removing.

Where I can't dig I pull out or break off anything that appears above the surface as soon as I can after I see it. I have less evidence that this is working in the hedges and grass paths, but in my mind it must be better than leaving it to grow. It is interesting that on the next door plot, where he hasn't pulled it, there were loads of fruiting bodies, but the only ones I found on my plot were along the boundary with his, whereas there were several in and around the tunnel last year. This implies to me that the plant has been weakened so that it hasn't the energy to produce spores.

I won't ever completely get rid of it as the whole area is infested, but I'm determined to keep it well under control.