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cwmmawr
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Any allotment or home growers out there getting ready for the growing season ?

 

Got my early potatoes going in this week and have onions shallots and peas coming on in greenhouse for later planting outside anyone growing anything different this year?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

My first attempt at growing veg... It seems I've fed the slugs well and achieved very little else!

Got to get rid of the slugs.

 

If you can find some old carpet tiles/samples, lay them pile-side-down around the garden and water well (or do it on a damp evening).

 

In the morning, the slugs will have congregated under the carpet, and you can collect t them up and exterminate them as you wish.

 

Chickens love them, apparently.

 

LS

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Bit of a dodgy start for my peas and beans - think it was mice who removed 80% of seeds but bought plants cheap at big garden market and all doing well now particularly runners which have got a wriggle on. I moved the few peas and broad beans from my 'attacked' rows and put them I a small area away from main ground and they look superb - these will be for the wife/grandkids to eat raw. Spuds looking very good - 3 types all unused before just for scrapers for the pot. Artichokes looking spectacular - not grown these before but the spectacular foliage in my biggish garden also a bonus. Need to look up recipes for these.

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Potatoes are all through and set up in drills now, beans look to have had a good percentage germinate. White turnips, beetroot ok, carrots under fleece and doing good courgettes now in beds and cabbage thriving under netted protection. Carted in sacks and sacks of sharp river sand and it seems to be helping break down the unyeilding clay soil. Much of the entire allotment site is under water for much of the winter due to poor drainage.

 

Blackpowder

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Even heavy clay can be quickly improved by a thick mulching at the end of the growing season.

 

In my first year, the topsoil in the garden was very thin, over a heavy cold clay. The one saving grace of the long period of neglect was that there were hundreds of dandelion roots like carrots, which had gone done a foot or more into the subsoil - making it a bit easier to dig. In October, this was roughly double-dug (and as many dandelions removed as possible) and covered with 3"-4" of straw (with the positions of the broad bean seeds marked out clearly, so I knew where to look!).

 

Digging over the beds the following spring, the number of earthworms was very impressive, and the soil, whilst still a bit pale, was considerably more friable.

 

Once the vegetables were established I began regularly top-dressing with a good inch of well-rotted manure.

 

The following October, the whole garden (with the exception of some super leaf beets that were still producing) was thoroughly forked, and the beds laid out for the following year. The difference in just one year was remarkable, for just a couple of weekends of serious graft.

 

You can buy in earthworms if you think you need them, but in my experience a nick thick blanket of straw and a bit of patience was all that was needed to bring them in!

 

LS

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  • 3 months later...

My best results have come from a blackberry bush at the end of the garden which I gave no attention at all too! Typical. As its our first year we've enjoyed mixed results, but managed to pickle a few jars of beetroot and have sugar snap peas coming out our ears for a few weeks. My question though, what happens now?? Do you just cover it over until next year?

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You can still squeeze in some quick-cropping turnips and radishes. You might even get some more beets in (there are a number of varieties that give you almost as much top as bottom, and it's all edible).

 

Start thinking about next year. If you've identified a sunny spot with a but of shelter, you might make a note to put sweet corn over there next year. If you want big pumpkins, you need to start getting food into the soil where they are going to be now.

 

Once you've finished your catch crops, thoroughly dig over a god-sized patch for winter-sowing some broad beans. I had excellent results with 'Wizard' field beans (good to eat, rather than just Green manure). Some of the longpod varieties will also stand winter sowing. I wouldn't put them in until November at the earliest. Small plants are hardier than big ones.

 

If there are any patches that are going to remain empty until next spring, give them a good going-over and then lay down a really thick mulch (well-rotted manure, or even just some straw). By breaking up the soil and mulching, the worms will do the rest of the work for you! :lol: suckers!

 

Lastly, was there anything that didn't ripen sufficiently this year, that could have used a longer growing season, or just a head start? If you made a note of your sowing dates, maybe put a note in your 2017 calendar to start them under glass a bit earlier, or spend the winter making some cold frames. The ones I made meant I got my first peas in the ground and growing well before the last frosts, and the plants and the yields were terrific.

 

Happy gardening!

 

LS

Edited by lord_seagrave
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