Digging

I'm no expert either but I grew them this year beside each other and they turned out really well and it was my first year growing roots - although i did make the mistake of adding manure in winter- i now no that that causes them to fork.

 

I used to grow parsnips in the same area and I had no problems. I used to pre germinate the parsnips cause otherwise they take a long time. I can understand why you would put sweet corn in that area. Most of my manure went on the pea, bean and onion section and sweet corn like a really rich soil as well.

 

I tried starting my carrots & parsnips off in toilet roll tubes and i planted them out in the toilet tube, made sure it was really wet and they did better this way than just sowing them straight into the ground. By doing it that way, i didnt have gappy rows and caused less disturbance to the roots

 

It was to avoid gappy rows that I did it with parsnips. With carrots what the old guys on the allotments used to do was take ot a broad drill using a spade.Then water the base of the drill. Then sow thinly in a broad strip. The philosophy was "why just sow in a narrow row?" You can grow carrots in close proximity to each other because the foliage is upright.You thinned out and used the thinnings for baby carrots and you got a lot of carrots in a relatively small area.
When I moved to this part of Shropshire all the early sowings of carrots had to be protected against carrot fly. The best method was to sow under fleece, so there was a physical barrier. So I had maximise the yield under the protected area - and used broad drills again.

 

Last year we didnt get our manure until late Sept.,then we went away on holiday.Came back and mr.fiz rotavted it in for me in Oct.(veg plot)In the spring he rotavated again and later i dug holes about a ft deep for spuds.I grew in this order; sweetcorn,spuds,a few carrots,spinnach,turnips,leeks,spring onions,beetroot,sprouts,broccoli,cabbage,parsnips,lettuce and lastly red onions.Granted,i`ll never win any shows with them(well maybe the spring onions)but they all grew well apart from the brussels(cos i didn`t firm them in wll enough)and a few red onions went to seed.Maybe Nov is a Bit late for manure but surely 3 or 4 weeks wont make that much difference?

 

this is my veg plot July.oh,forgot to add, peas aswell.

 

i would be very proud to have had a veg plot like that E its so orderly good for you

 

Thanks macleaf.Yes i am very proud.Mr.fiz does the hard work(he`s a powerful digger,he has to be)but the everthing else is my domain.

 

roger that

 

That's great, Elaine! How long have you been doing this?

 

Now that's a plot to be proud of!

 

Not long dendrobium.We got the plot yr before last,so `04. This years been my first real attempt and more work than i thought i had in me.Needless to say the rewards speak for themselves.I must admit though, getting it all to come together again next year is a bit daunting.Mr.fiz has kindly installed me a small hob in the gh and a heater in a new shed come gh hes recently built so at least i`ll be warm this time round.

 

Love the new avatar, btw! You're doing a great job there - hope I'll be able to get an allotment one day....

 

fingers crossed for ya dendy and thanks Casey.

 

Looks like you were richly rewarded for a lot of effort Elaine what a fine crop