This has to be the least successful year for me regarding chillies. Not a single one has been borne to fruitition, even with the poly tunnel. I had more success last year with out one! The orange and chocolate habaneros, bengle and Dorset nagas, serrano, jamaican jerk are lovely and green. There are clutches of where flowers. But not even a smudge of fruit. They are warm, mostly with the mild temperatures we have been experiencing; watered too. But this year I have experienced a complete and abject failure.
The last week has been spent going a funny shade of olive on the Greek I island of Corfu. And I do mean a funny shade, the scorching sun meant I went a bit crispy in the first two days despite the factor 30 being slapped on. Surrounded by what looked like purple bindweed, the resort was lovely. There was nothing to do, but sit in the sun and read.
And I did, I went through a few bond novels. Found that they were an interesting genre. Nothing like the big screen adaptations. Though I did read them with chris Cornell and Adele running through my head. Bond is a strange man, and his Bond girls are awful. Much of the novels content and language is a child of the time in which they were written. Making some of the novels uneasy reading. The other literature was Sue graftons alphabet serie. I am up L or M, I think. Both of these novel genres can be read in a couple of hours, if you have the sun, nothing to do, and few rounds of Gin fizz.
As for the allotment, ma has been overseeing it. I had almost daily reports about a cherry tomato going red, but being eaten by a birdie. And she had plum picking again, and with blackberries wants to make a plum and blackberry tart. Tomatoes have appeared in abundance. Green though. Much has survived the cold temperatures, even the poly is leafy. Though I do need to check in there properly. Last I checked there were only two chilli fruit in there. No aubergines since the two that grown.
Assorted Garlic cloves were planted through cardboard last autumn, With a dry spell, they aren’t looking too bad. A little wind burned, but otherwise reasonable. I expect that these will hopefully get some height and width with as the spring weather approaches. Certainly looks encouraging as the weather settles. That said, March comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb.
Shallots were the bedfellows of the garlic, and occupy a number of the beds on project othello. It is only now, that the green shoots are visible, with a lack of puddles. Like the garlic, these were sown through cardboard that has so far worked reasonably well.
Sunderland Kale occupies the same bed as Mama H’s spinach and chard. Her next mission is to separate out the spinach plants. Her verdict on the Kale that it looked very nice, There is hope for it yet. I do wonder what it tastes like. It doesn’t have the wrinkly leaves that I expected. There are stalks in the raised bed that belong to nero di toscano, it will be interesting to see if that makes a return.
Strawberries exist on the plot. I don’t know what variety they are, only that there were given to me by a plot neighbour. These have to be rehomed to elsewhere on the plot, as this bed needs replenishing. The level has sunk quite a bit, and was home to courgettes and marrows last year.
A quarter of the plot has been dug over today. Mama h is planning on digging over the rest to see what the heavy clay is up to. To be honest, that means digging woodchip into part of it, as it currently sits on black plastic bags. Hopefully the digging in of the woodchip counts as organic matter.
Yes, these videos were made surreptitiously without Mama H finding out. Hence the quiet David Attenborough tones in talking.
As you know, plot 2 is very low and liable to get flooded. Whilst for half of the plot this is remedied by having raised beds; the other half is proving to equally challenging. A few of the beds are quite uneven and these dips fill up and write off crops. Today, I took a by whim walk down. It’s been a few days. I noticed that there was big heap of woodchip and tree left for communal use and decided to make use of it. Whilst I can hear the harbingers tut and groan about using green woodchip; I am using it as organic material. In the same way you might use poop or grass cuttings. It will help even out the land and possibly help alter the otherwise heavy clay. If the worst comes to worse, It will covered over with any spare leaf mold that might be available.
Over the last few days, there has been a brief window of respite from the deluge of rain that the British Isles has been experiencing. The volume of precipitation has reduced some what, and the sun-yes, the sun-has even made an an appearance or two. With that, the puddles have started to dissipate! woo-hoo!
The plot is still damp, yes, there has been alot of water. But the puddles that had been there have in fact gone. I can see clearly low the dips, and a few of the onions and shallots that were planted in the late autumn. A few of the flooded parts have sent up a few shoots, but not many. Shallots are only just sending up clumps of shoots. One of my site neighbours does believe that the onions, shallots and garlic will recover. Her logic being that the plot has been under a foot of water before, and the onions et cetra still came off. We shall see!
The garlic doesn’t seem to be doing too badly, a little wind burned, but still there. The red onions are most likely a write off. As are the broad beans that were sown. Both of these could be resown, but this drying up of ground does present me with the opportunity to perhaps sink potatoes there instead. Broadbeans could be sown else where further down on the plot, rather than on the project othello section. Have never had much success with spuds in open ground, so this could be the plausible window to do so. At least now, Ma doesn’t have to have any broadbeans. It is now easier to see where wig wams could also be positioned. Once the plot gets drier, I can assess all the seven open ground beds on project othello.
The doom and gloom is lifting, the whole plot seems lighter, and there were even some crocuses come through. As well what looked like daffodils and tulips.
In this gap, with the wind hurling its weight around and the potential to start sowing; I find myself speculating what I might grow. All plots are different, I know I would say that mine is stuck in its own little universe with its own microcosm. The site I am on, varies as to who has success with what. Plot 2 spends a lot of time under water when we have rain, and the open grown is heavy clay. This means that some things work and some just don’t.
With lots of raised beds on the lower half of the plot; this helps overcome
Some of the flooding issues. The top half-project othello-is largely open ground and the dips in the topography are flooded. Dips, which were where onions have been sunk.
Whilst there are early sowings of window sill babies, I have turned my attention to what happens next. A majority of the raised beds have sunk and need refilling. That is what the leaf mold will be used for. There are seed potatoes that need to be sunk. Might experiment with both open ground and raised beds. Beans would be the next thing. Both runner beans and climbing French beans to be grown up wig wams. Usually these are modularised in March. I would also like to retry celery and cauliflowers. I had some purple cauliflower seeds to try. I did try these before, a classroom experiment that didn’t come off as they got too leggy and keeled over. Have yet to do carrots properly. There is also fennel to consider; didn’t quite get the hang of it last year. Cucumbers were an interesting foray. With crystal lemon and marketmore being the only ones working. Might well be a polytunnel job. Another experiment might be the sweet crimson watermelon in the polytunnel.
Sweetcorn was curious. Did only end up with eight plants surviving. Not sure if I fancy trying that again. Was debating modularised cabbages in the vein as cauliflowers.
All these potential experiments. But will the Wendy, 4TB and poly cope?
Over the last two weeks, it has been rather difficult to walk down to the plot. Mainly as the weather has been atrocious, but also as I start a new post. The sum of any visits has been to wander down there in the red wellingtons and see if the puddles have got any deeper. One takes one’s life into one’s hands just getting down the path. Sadly, there is no money in the site budget to fix it. I grumbled about that a fair bit at the plot meeting. It is turning into a health and safety hazard. The plot itself, is a maze of puddles; as you will see from the videos. Which is why there are so many raised beds. The benefit of the rain, is that I can see where I need to build things up. The plot is actually lower than the path that runs alongside.
The plot cuts something of a post-apocalyptic scene in the desolate dire winter. A stark contrast to the flourishing flowering scene in the summer gone. I must remember to sow the sunflowers for the Sunflower project 2014. I encourage to think about that, a good cause and it makes the plot look oh so pretty!
I know that the for the last few weeks, all the updates have been somewhat miserable. Sadly, I cannot control the weather! The growing season is still in it’s infancy.
Took a walk down to plot 2 today. Wanted to update you all on just what was happening. Very cold, but very bright. Just not very playable though.
Bit of sunshine, lots of puddles. So much to clear up.
I have battled with the topography of the plot. It is lower in the middle, than everywhere else. Water forms puddles, that then just stand and stay there stagnating. The key has been raised beds. I can safely say, that they have been very useful. Allowed me to get growing, and be successful with it. last year, three beds were full of potatoes. The spuds worked reasonably well, I got potatoes, that was good enough for me. However, there was a lot slug damage to them. The beds were filled with assorted organic matter. Grass cuttings, horse poop, and leaf mold. This year, the beds have sunk; as they do. So will need to have more material added to them.
There are onions, shallots and garlic in there somewhere. These were all planted through cardboard. I would have expected to see a bit more top growth by now, but these were planted a whole month later than expected. In addition, there has been a lot of rain. I can only hypothesis that the roots are being set down, at least by those sets that have survived the wet and inclement weather.
Leaf mold! This was all collected last year, and is cooking in the cold. There are two aims for this stuff. To first use in the raised beds, and there are quite a few raised beds. Then to put what remains where I can, to improve the soil and help raise the open ground areas. Last year, one entire builders bag was used to fill a 1mx2m bed. This bed was then used to cultivate two courgettes and marrows. I can safely say, that the decaying matter did them wonders. Prolific anyway, the squashes somewhat thrived with all that leaf mold.
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horticultural 'obbit 