The Laybury's allotment project

We've got a hoe somewhere on the plot. I think Mrs used it to plant the lettuce and spring onion seeds some time last week. Can't say for definite because I was pulling out weeds. Pretty sure the one that we have it your boggo standard type though. Does it make much difference? Think it's a bit like this one - http://www.seed4lawns.co.uk/ekmps/shops/bell52/images/junior-hoe-no-3231n-79-p.jpg
EDIT: yes, we definitely did have one of these but it was so rotten the head fell off and now one half is holding something up and the other half is in the scrap metal bin at the tip. Definitely time to invest in a new one.

Yes, it does look like a very good plot now, but rest assured that was not the case a couple of weeks back. We cleared the spot with the archway first, and then moved clockwise around the plot. I think this is the only photo we have of any of the plot before we cleared it. You can see how dense they were on this photo.

We actually found a bag of incredibly well composted wood chippings in among that, and the compost bin used to be where the chair is in that picture, and was also surrounded by nettles.

We've also dug in around 240l of multipurpose or other compost into the section to increase the quality of the soil. It's very loose now, and hopefully a lot better at retaining water. We were managing to pull mare's tail out yesterday with their full root system in tact-only around 5-6 inches but I feel confident that they bits which had broken off on previous attempts.


Side note is that despite us being on a flood plain with a tidal stream at the bottom of the plot, we don't get waterlogged and i think we have incredibly good draining soil.

 

To me it does, a standard dutch hoe as in the type your link refers to is a simple back and forward hoe, nothing wrong with that and gardeners have used them for ages.

The type I recommend goes back and forward and also can get in between plants too, so great for hoeing rows of onions for example. So yes, it does make a difference, at least to me it does anyway.

Many plots look like yours did at the start of the year, unless your an ultra tidy plotholder.

Steve...

 

The small area of dead nettles was the only part of the plot we hadn't touched yet. This picture was taken almost at the end of the clearing. Sorry, I don't think that was made very clear!

We actually desperately need to weed around our onions at the moment and were only talking today about it so think one of those is definitely worth investing in!

 

We got a lot done down at the allotment today... we spent almost 8 hours down there!
The first job was to do some weeding around my sweetcorn, peppers and courgettes. I uncovered them for the duration of the time we were there too, just to let them 'breathe' a bit. I planted out the butternut squash- possibly a bit early but I have no patience!
This is what the bed looks like at the moment:


From bottom to top you can see a row of peppers, a row of butternut squash, a row of golden courgettes, another row of butternut squash, two rows of sweetcorn and beyond that is the potatoes. These are all now covered up.

Afterwards, we started to dig over our newly aquired bed (kindly given to us by Mr Laybury's mother). Thankfully, Mr Laybury did all the hard graft whilst I merely followed behind, hand picking the mare's tail and dock roots out. We then set to work constructing an area for our french climbing beans. We came up with this:


The netting was only £1 from wilkinsons for 4m x 1.7m. It was surprisingly easy to handle, especially with my excessive use of plant ties. I then used ground begs to hold the netting down at the bottom. Excuse the mess of the background.... it's just that time of year!

Whilst digging over the bed, we found lots of potatoes, some of which are pictured below. We're wondering whether or not to eat them, as we're unsure how long exactly they've been in the ground! It's most likely a year, but could possibly be more. Some advice from more experienced growers would be great!



Afterwards we planted some of our strawberries into their final growing pots for this year... We're going to stack them once we've planted out the ones at home too.



All that really needs doing at the moment is to have a proper good weeding. Unfortunately, I can't weed the majority of my beds due to not knowing the difference from my seedlings and my weeds! I'll make sure to post some more photos tomorrow, in the hopes someone more experienced than myself can help me to identify them!

I hope you enjoyed reading:-)

 

Not done much these days, but storing potatoes in a "clamp" is how it used be done. A clamp is a layer of straw, then potatoes then soil, rinse and repeat until you have a pile then cover with soil. So from this info you can see that the potatoes you have dug up are good to eat, as long as they are not too soft or green, they will be fine.

Steve...

 

Found this image:


Looks intriguing but I have no idea how that's gonna work in a 2 bed apartment.

Today I have earthed up our potatoes. Some of them were getting fairly large and I didn't want to get them destroyed by frost since temperatures dropped to -0.3 last night and nearly wiped out the french beans we forgot to protect.

I genuinely don't have a clue if I've done this right. Any feedback on what i should do would be appreciated.



P.S. the french beans are now protected from further frost damage. Fingers crossed there's not been too much done already.

 

So here's what's been going on on our plot this week.

We got some compost bins from Primrose. Worked out at £23.99 each plus £4.99 p&p which i thought was pretty reasonable. Not 100% sure on the quality of the bins but as long as they compost. Pretty much filled one already.


Our early spuds are breaking through their mounds on a daily basis.


And our main crop are starting to show through now too.

We've planted out most of our strawberries in our stacking planters.



we also bought a honeysuckle, clematis, and cyclamen (I think. I thought we'd bought three honeysuckles but evidently not) to fill a gap in the hedge at the side of our plot.

Other crops around the plot are starting to pick up their game now, and at long last all our mangetout plants have started climbing! YAY
Slugs no longer seem to be a problem for us, but there are small nibbles circles on the leaves of the broad bean plants.

Mark