No willpower

Yesterday, I didn’t get to washing the outside of the greenhouse but I did clear the bed in the back garden and mulch with the spent compost from the pots I bagged up last weekend (see photo below).  No sign of any flatworm underneath any of the bags, or inside after being tipped out.  Or under one of the Strawberry planters next to the greenhouse.  I should check the others tomorrow.

I decided to remove the Gladioli and Croscosmia bulbs from the bed as these are just too large for the bed at full pelt in Summer.  I potted up 3 chunks of Croscosmia but have left the Gladioli out (these can be seen in the blue crate at the bottom left of the photo).  There are masses of them so I’ll have a think about what to do.  There are another couple of plants to remove to pots at some point - an orange poppy potentially and an apricot-flowered plant which is lovely but droops over the side of the bed and gets a bit unwieldy.  Elsewhere in the bed, some Chives have emerged and there are some Primula and Forget-Me-Not.  Quite a lot of Mint running under the bed so I pulled as much as I could out.   

This leaves me with some space to think about planting more fruit and veg in the garden - the front garden is open to deer so is less of an option.  The bed is approximately 6.5m long.  I am seriously considering buying an Apricot tree from the garden centre, already trained as a fan.  A Tomcot which is self-fertile.  An expensive treat but would be lovely and wouldn’t take much room between the grape vines.  We’ll see.

On another positive note, I did see a few worms while digging out the bulbs so there may be a decent population.  I just hope I’ve not ruined it with adding the compost.

As the light disappeared I took some planting trays and large plastic pots to wash.  Really thinking about sowing tomorrow…must…..resist….  

Next day…

I got round to washing most of the outside of the greenhouse - all except the back and the two top panels at the back.  

I check the greenhouse for flatworm and found one under the true (so took that in to wash) and found two under one of the strawberry planters outside (no chordate of slugs though so perhaps they had only recently arrived).

After the grocery shopping, I treated myself to a trip to the two local garden centres.  At one I bought two pairs of secateurs (special offer), a packet of green Zinnias and some seed potatoes (10 Rocket and 2kg Carolus, amounting to 27 tubers of various sizes).  Neither sold Cara so chose Carolus as it has some late blight resistance.  Then I weakened and bought a Tomcot Apricot tree, trained as a fan, from the other garden centre.  I planted it between the grape vines in the back garden and watered it in.   

I nipped over to the plot very briefly to harvest some Leeks (mainly small and most with evidence of leaf miner), Jerusalem Artichokes and Parsnips to make soup for the week.  I am really lacking some fresh leafy greens and something has been nibbling at the dwarf curly kale.

I weakened further and ended up sowing some seeds.  Some saved Sweet Peas (Cupani I hope/think), 2 pots of Aubergine (Black Beauty and Long Purple 3) and some Alpine Strawberries (Mixed and Baron Solemacher). Some of the seeds are quite out-of-date so I convinced myself that sowing early would be a good mitigation for poor germination.  That is my story and I am sticking to it.

Unwelcome guests

I took the opportunity last Sunday (Jan 22nd) to start cleaning the greenhouse.  In the end I managed to clean the whole of the inside before the light went but just after my hands had gone numb with the cold.  Quite an achievement though.  

This was marred by the discovery, early in the process when I was moving the pots full of compost around in the greenhouse and pondering whether to empty the pots into the garden bed or retain and mulch for the coming year’s crops, of what seems to be Australian flatworm (Australplana sanguinea).

When I lifted the first pot to see what was underneath, I saw several worm-like creatures but as these looked unusually salmon-coloured to me (se photo below), I looked them up on the web.  They quite clearly fit the description of the Australian flatworm.  Bad news given the rate at which they gobble up earthworms and, as the RHS suggests, on their website, have a negative impact on the soil ecosystem.  It is an offence in England to release them into the wild.  

I do not generally kill critters in the garden but, given the risk they pose, I did collect all those I found into a yogurt pot and poured over salt water.  As well as being under every pot in the greenhouse, they were also under the pots outside by the car, which had been in the greenhouse during Summer/Autumn.  

As this stage, I am unsure whether a) they have always been here despite not noticing them before (which would kinda explain why I have never seen many worms in the garden beds) b) came with the top soil I received from a neighbour and used for some of the pots c) came from a plant I took in from elsewhere (can only think of the dahlia I bought from a local charity plant sale d) came in the compost I’ve been buying.  These flatworms are apparently widespread in the South of England now so could have been here for ages.

So, what now?  I bagged up the compost from the pots and am acutely aware there is likely to be flatworms in there somewhere.  Nevertheless I don’t want to dispose of them elsewhere and spread the problem.  I plan to spread these in the back garden only and lay down some folded up compost bags, weighed down with bricks, in a couple of places in the beds.  This will hopefully provide a good spot for flatworms in the bed and I can check and dispose every few days to lower numbers.  The RHS suggests this won’t make a dent in the population but it will help me to understand how big the issue is.  

I have pots full of compost on the patio and a quick check last week didn’t turn up any flatworms underneath those but I’ll empty those too and wash all the pots to start afresh this season.  Expensive but sensible I think.  I also turned the compost in the left-hand bin last week and it looks like there is progress but it is not ready to be used yet (see photo below).  That will be used in the front garden beds and for pots - I have no idea of the flatworm status of the compost bin contents or the front garden.  I may try trapping some flatworms in the beds out front to see if there are any readily near the surface.

Apparently ground beetles sometimes predate the flatworms so spreading good compost should be a priority in the coming months, when I have more available.  

For this weekend, I will attempt to clean the outside of the greenhouse.  I noticed that tomorrow may be a good day (according to the moon phase) to sow fruiting plants.  It will take some willpower not to break away from my plan and sow aubergines and sweet peas.  I need to buy some secateurs and seed potatoes so a trip to the garden centre is in order.  I’ll also check on the plot if time.

 

Plenty of chips

The weather has been incredibly wet and pretty cold.  Currently, the back garden is frozen having not had chance to thaw during the day despite the sunshine.

Since the last post, a large pile of clippings (mainly or entirely Leylandii/Cypress as far as I can tell) arrived at the entrance of the allotment site, following my plea to a couple of local tree surgeons over the festive break.  During the following week, I moved around 20+ barrow loads to Bed 3 of my plot (shown in photo below) and since then completed the job with another 14 or so loads last week.  There is some skepticism around concerning the use of conifer clippings given their impact on soil acidity plus something about poisonous resins or some such.  Some gardeners are more relaxed and I am choosing to take that route.

I plan to use some around the raspberries and fruit bushes and perhaps also over the strip of strawberries I plan to dig up.  It may be that covering the old strawberry plants with a thick layer will be sufficient to kill them off.  Remaining clippings can be spread near the storage box to keep weeds from taking hold and providing a bit of a habitat for various critters.  Potatoes are a likely candidate for Bed 3 this coming season and they may appreciate a little bit of any acidity due to having the chippings sit there for a couple of months warming the soil.

In other news at the plot, three more broccoli plants have snapped leaving just one.  I cannot imagine that one will also make it through.

The leeks are standing ok but I should use them soon before they are eaten away entirely by the bugs.

And the rhubarb is starting to sprout.

I have washed a lot of pots ready for the season but still need to start cleaning the greenhouse.  The garlic is up in the two pots in there - my insurance against failures at the plot.  

Just before Christmas, I think, I checked in on the compost in the left-hand bin at home expecting/hoping that it would be ready to mulch the beds.  Alas it was nowhere near.  I wish I had taken a photo for a comparison but checking today, I think it has developed somewhat despite not getting to required temperatures.  

I emptied it and refilled it with some iced water and coffee grounds between some layers.  Will be interesting to see what happens to the temperature over the next couple of weeks.  Will be in a bit of a bind if I don’t have compost to spread and use in pots by Spring.  I’ll turn again in a month.

Last weekend I bought the first bag of compost this year along with 6 long trays for the greenhouse.  I am hoping these will each take 3 pots and will make it easier to keep the pots moist and the greenhouse floor tidy.

I’ll try to get some greenhouse cleaning done tomorrow and may treat myself to a new pair of secateurs.

Happy 2023

This is me re-starting my blog so I can keep track of what works and what doesn’t and to share that with others who may be interested.  I’ve subscribed to a few vlogs that are useful (more on those another time) but don’t see so many blogs these days.  Perhaps I am looking in the wrong place but sometimes, i.e. when my bandwidth or battery is low, I just want to read something and look at static images.  Ol’ skool.

It has been a wet and soggy few days.  Typical for Christmas in the SE of England it seems.  Yesterday was dry though so I spent 3 hours on the plot.  I had expected to feel overwhelmed but the long-handled 3-prong cultivator made quick work of a quick weeding of Bed 2 and some of Bed 4.  I’ve left most of the weeds on the surface of the soil for a change - normally I’d put them in a compost bin.  

Unfortunately, the Winter brassicas have not faired very well given the hard freeze we had earlier in December.  3-4 of the purple sprouting broccoli had spongy and/or broken stems so I pulled these out to cut my losses.  Four remain. Sprouts are appearing on the Brussels sprouts but in low numbers given the shortness of the stems.  I pulled out the other brassicas in Bed 1 except for the two remaining, dwarf curly green kale plants.  They don’t quite have enough to pick yet but hopefully they will have in spring.  Two Tuscan kale plants remain upstanding in Bed 4 and could perhaps stand a picking at the weekend. 

While I was there, Mark popped by and we assisted me in digging up a clump of rhubarb for dividing.  I replanted a couple of small bits and bagged up several larger clumps to give to my dad.  I saved a couple of even smaller pieces to take home for planted in the shady bed.  Mark’s advice was to leave the clumps out in the weather but a quick look online suggested to me that this was only really needed to enforce a period of cold.  Given the recent hard frost, I didn’t feel this was necessary.  Plus, I don’t trust myself to remember to replant them at that right time or for the weather to be good at the point of replanting.  Before leaving, I spread over a bag of compost that I had taken from one of the bins at least a couple of months ago.  

It was lovely to see the small fruit bushes starting to bud - a reminder of things to come.  I found a bag of leaves so spread those around the base of the bushes to make it harder for the weeds to re-sprout.  I dug up some Jerusalem artichokes and a couple of leeks before heading home with those plus the rhubarb.  Both leeks had allium leaf miner larvae on them.  I has suspected this was behind the poor performance of leeks and onions in the past few years so useful to see it up close.  I’ve read it is becoming prevalent in the SE.  I am already ‘diarising’ the placement of mesh over any allium crops in March-May and Aug-Oct to given the alliums some sort of chance.  I may also deploy nematodes.  My current plan is to plant all alliums at the top end of Bed 1 to make this easier.  That is where I planted the garlic a month or so ago (and there are shoots appearing in one of the 2 rows of these).

Back at home, I did a stock-take of seeds and wrote a short list of those I need.  I happened to pop by a local garden centre to bought most of those.  I missed Zinnias though so that can be a treat for another time.

I also planned sowing dates for most of the fruit and veg.  Based on the lunar calendar as well, first sowings will be on Feb 25th although I have a small number of English Bluebell seeds from my mum’s funeral to sow so I might get those in this month.  That doesn’t count as impatience - they are special.  That is my story and I am sticking to it.

That gives me a few weekends to get ready for the new season and to do the important jobs to set everything up for success e.g. cleaning the greenhouse - inside and out, cleaning and sorting the pots and trays, cleaning my tools, and cleaning the labels.  Time will rush by…