fish, blood and bone meal

28. OCTOBER

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For a change I had an afternoon session on the allotment today. I had to stew some more apples that Chris gave me, they don’t keep too well, it is better I use them quickly. I had a rest day yesterday because we went to London on Thursday to finalise my application for my Czech passport. I’m delighted to say that all  went smoothly and I just have to wait a few weeks and then go and collect it. It took the best part of this year but …he who waits…etc.

I started to empty my black composter bins to get some quality soil out, ready to fill the large black flower pots for growing some strawberries in the greenhouses. It was a pleasant surprise how  much I  managed to get out. It is not the final amount, I’ll  have another go in the early spring. I’ll  leave the soil in the sacks and fill the pots just before I’m ready to plant the strawberries in. I’ve got a number of selected plants in one greenhouse, I want them to develop a  good root system.

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Our new friend on the allotment, Terry, who’s  got the chickens, was working there, digging a large hole for a pond. This is a precast one so he has to dig out quite a lot of soil. I went to see him and was told I can have as much of this soil as I want. Perfect, I have filled four sacks and will mix it with the composter soil. Then just add a bit of fish, blood and bone and I’ll be ready.

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I’ll continue every day, a few bags here and there. Also I can perhaps get some  more cardboard and do another piece of no dig gardening, I’ll have enough to cover quite a large area with the heap of soil Terry had dug out.

I always feed the hens with  some vegetables from my plot and today was no different. They got some carrots and beetroot and also the grass that I raked up  after cutting the paths. In exchange I was given three eggs, freshly laid, we had them in the evening with our pumpkin  curry.

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And tomorrow morning we shall have some of my autumn raspberries on our porridge. I can’t believe they are still producing, it is the end of October,  but the weather is confused and so is nature.

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It is raining now but I hope tomorrow will be a bright day, after the clock change and I’ll  be able to go back and carry on with the work.

15. MARCH

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The weather was very good today, just the right temperature for a bit of strenuous digging and potato planting. I didn’t want to plant too many so in the end we have six lines on one plot and two on another one. I think that  should be just about enough, we’ve got some very early potatoes in pots in the back garden as well.

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It was quite a lot to do and I decided to dig all the trenches first. All I had to do then was to sprinkle in some fertiliser – I’m using a mix of chicken manure pellets and fish,  blood and bone. One trench takes 15 potatoes, that gives them enough space to give me some decent sized potatoes. We have a variety from first earlies to main season ones so if all else fails we should have spuds!

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WEEDS

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We had a little drop of rain last night, just enough to soften the surface of the soil. It didn’t penetrate deep at all but was just enough to make the weeding a bit easier. Today was the turn of the brassica cage. I have a number of purple sprouting broccoli, kohlrabi, red cabbages and curly kale there and a lot of weeds. Amazing that they grew so well as  May was extremely dry. It was a job for the whole morning.

A few hours and a stiff back later it looked much better.

It is a pity I can’t make any use of the bucket of weeds…

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And after all the work I sprinkled a good amount of my feeding mix – fish, blood and bone and chicken manure pellets all around the plants. As I am writing this the long-awaited rain came so it should all soak in. Another net cage to weed tomorrow, and another the day after…..

PAMPERING…

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..and talking to my plants certainly works. If a certain member of the royal family can do it, so can I.

There are two schools of thought as far as looking after tomatoes is concerned – take the leaves off or don’t. I go with the first one and it seems to work.

To be honest, I was feeding them with a mix of seaweed extract, comfrey tea and the liquid from my wormery. On top of than I topped the soil in the grow pots with Farmyard manure and soil improver from B&Q. Something must have worked!

The squashes are climbing well up and along the structures I’ve constructed for them, they have also been fed with the seaweed extract and some Fish, blood and bone.

And of course, all of them get encouragement from me!!

PLANTING TIME…

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…is here again.

I tend to do my planting back to front but it always works out. This occasion is no different.

Last Sunday afternoon I listened to one of my favourite programmes – Gardeners’ question time on Radio 4 and among other topics they were talking about apple trees. Well, you can’t have too many so I decided to pay attention. It was worth it. I’ve never heard of an apple called Keswick codlin; that didn’t stop me, found it and liked the sound of it. Even found a nursery, decided on the size and shape of the tree and ordered.

The nursery was a new one to me – Ashridge nurseries – and I am delighted with the service. They had my apple in stock, the size I wanted and no sooner did I order it then it came perfectly wrapped.

Then came the thought – where shall I plant it? I decided that I had enough trees on the allotment already so I started thinking of the best place in my back garden. And I found it. I had an almost empty raised bed beside the greenhouse, in a sunny spot and well sheltered by the fence. The soil there is good but I still added some organic matter and Fish, blood and bone meal, just to give it the very best start and all was ready.

All’s well that ends well, my latest tree is already in its position, hazel pole in situ,  carefully tied using soft ties (old cut up socks – you can’t beat them for softness and stretchiness).

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