Tales from the allotment shed "SOOTY" & SWEEP

Evening all,
Gardening really is in my mind one hell of a hobby,
Its not very offten you'll get two days the same, and you'll learn & learn all the time,
What im saying is that if you want ? you can continue to learn more & more all the time, Not just about the growing of the food etc but before you know it your learning about cooking the produce your growing,

You need to know when & why the crops are grown but also whens the best time to harvest them?

One of the big mistakes every new gardener makes is not wanting to chuck out the thinings when your removing small plants to enable the remaining plant space to grow,

We all think this is a sin, After all we've bought the seeds, the compost etc and now we're being told to chuck some away! But its a very good thing to do thin out the young plants.

But if i was to say to you "what about the slugs? They eat the plants and what are you doing about them????

Bird friendly slug pellets! cost money, "Beer in a plastic used butter container! "Beer cost money,

How about SOOT!
Well soot has been used for years and its a good soil improver, "but slugs do not like it, and worms are not so keen on it,

Ive used soot for years and i got my first suppy free from the local chimney sweep, out of yellow pages he was called "wait for this" SOOTY AND SWEEP CHIMNEY CLEANING SERVICES,

I tell no lie that was the name and ive always thought it was the best name for such a trade i'd ever seen, (it caught my eye.)

Well i phoned the numer , told him what i was after and from then on i went to his house every few months to both give him veg and i never run out of soot,

If you decide to use soot you must let it stand out in the open for at least 6 month, even longer if possible, then spread it over the ground and let nature water it in for you,or make a liquid feed by the usual method of fermination via the sack 1/2 filled and left in the water butt for 6 weeks
and then this liquid is diluted 10parts water to 1 part soot liquid.
Its a messy stuff to use but its worth the effort.

PS, When i first rang the sweep he had an answer phone that came into action after a few rings and the tune was chim- chim- eny chim- chim-eny.:yess:

 

my old man was a chimney sweep and i am one of twins

i bet you cant guess what we were nick named through school :o

 

Did it start with "S" ????????????????? (oooooooh i wont sleep tonight until i get the answer

 

Oh bother:(

That goes along with the Zig having bright ginger hair when he was at skool.

No fun.

Lets think back... Copper Nob, Rusty, Ginger Nuts, Duracell, Carrot Top (That one made me dispair of humanity's future as we gardeners know Carrot tops are green:DOH

Now i've got to the age when I wouldn't mind having ginger hair, it has faded to a tedious brown.

Why? what did I do in a previous life to deserve this